Apartments set for Metro Hotel site

A $12 million apartment block has been approved for a vacant site along Canning Highway that has been described as an "eyesore", next to the Metro Hotel in South Perth.

The Metro Inner-South Joint Development Assessment Panel today unanimously approved Celtic Capital Properties’ application to build a six-storey apartment block on 59-61 Canning Highway.

The proposed development will be named Panorama Apartments and will include 26 dwellings, associated parking and a communal rooftop area.

Metro Hotel stands on the parent lot, which is bound by Banksia and Hovia Terrace.

JDAP member and City of South Perth councillor Glenn Cridland said the development would reinvigorate the area, which should look better than it does.

“This has been a vacant site for quite a while, been a little bit of an eyesore and it is a difficult site,” he said at the meeting.

“It will be really good to have something built there.

“There’s a couple of quite tiny little pimples on it… but when you look at it overall, it’s a very good solution to what is a pretty difficult site.”

According to the development application, the area is jointly owned by Celtic Capital Properties and Transmetro Corporation Limited being the landowner of the Metro Hotel site.

The lot earmarked for Celtic’s $12 million apartment block is a 680 square metre site subdivided from Transmetro Corporation’s landholding.

Transmetro sold the surplus landholding to Celtic Capital Properties for $3.18 million in 2018, according to CoreLogic.

JDAP presiding member Clayton Higham described the site as "constrained" while city officers said the Canning Highway site was located along a fast frequency traffic route.

Panel members discussed issues on wastewater management and parking during the meeting, adding conditions to implement car stackers as part of the development approval.

The development application was prepared by Rowe Group with designs by Hart Architects.

The applicant first presented the apartment plan to the city in 2020 but met delays with a planning scheme over the area yet to be finalised, according to the development application.

Celtic Capital Properties is also developing the Halycon apartments in Subiaco.