Burswood apartment tower gets council tick

A $73 million 22-storey apartment tower in Burswood with development approvals going back 16 years is a step closer to being built after the council gave the nod for the project.

Sydney-based real estate investor Marprop plans to develop the high-rise building at 43-47 Burswood Road, with 186 one to three bedroom units, a restaurant/café, offices and 325 parking bays.

The Town of Victoria Park has recommended the development for joint development assessment panel approval.

Marprop managing director James Marshall said the investment group would look to cement its footprint in Perth as COVID restrictions eased, with Burswood being its only Perth asset.

“Marprop is incredibly pleased to have our application for a residential apartment building with the Town of Victoria Park for assessment,” he added.

“The property is located in an area zoned as park side residential with extensive views of the River and City (and) proposes a high-quality build, with extensive sustainability initiatives including solar panels, electric vehicles charging and substantial energy efficiency credentials.”  

An existing four-storey office building, currently occupied by Programmed, will be demolished to make way for the development.

Applications to develop the site date back to July 2005, when the Town of Victoria Park resolved to approve a 68-dwelling, 12-storey apartment complex.

In 2014, Singaporean group Fisel Pty Ltd received development approval for a $90 million 18-storey, 154-apartment mixed use building, which did not go ahead.

Marprop bought the site from Fisel for $13.25 million in 2019 with a view to transforming it into a residential and office precinct.  

Programmed is staying in the existing office tower until there is more certainty over the development, which has been years in the making.

The proposed building has a maximum height of 75.33 metres, exceeding the area’s maximum building height of 67.5m or 18 storeys.

Perth architects Cameron Chisholm Nicol designed the apartment tower and town planners element submitted the proposal on Marprop’s behalf.

The car park boundary wall height of 15.5m is almost five times the maximum boundary wall height for car parks in the area of 3.5m.

It also exceeds the local plot ratio limit, or the ratio of the building’s total floor area relative to the size of the block of land it sits on, by 0.85 – with a proposed floor space of 17,832sqm on a 4,665sqm lot.  

The proposal also has less than the minimum required on-site car parking bays for visitors and commercial users, but it is expected to make up for this by exceeding the minimum number of resident bays by 108.

The Town of Victoria Park stated that approval of the development relied upon discretion being granted by the joint development assessment panel, to support variations  beyond the limits set in the planning framework. 

Despite reservations about the planning framework from some of its officers, the Town of Victoria Park said the applicant "has adequately demonstrated that any amenity impacts associated with proposed variations are minimal". 

"The design is very responsive to the site context, presents a very high quality building to the landscape, and delivers many design outcomes over and above minimum standards," it stated. 

A Metro Inner-South Joint Development Assessment Panel will meet to decide on the proposal on November 23.

Marprop, headed by James Marshall, aims to reposition its assets by upgrading building facilities.

Burswood is the group’s only WA asset, with the remainder of its properties in the ACT, Victoria and NSW.

Marprop has developed, invested and divested over $1.5 billion of real estate assets in Australia.