DAP rejects new South Perth tower

Another developer in South Perth will be forced to rethink its apartment tower plans following the Supreme Court of Western Australia’s decision last month to send a Mill Point Road apartment proposal back to the drawing board.

Yesterday, the Metropolitan Central development assessment panel said the Supreme Court’s ruling was the main determining factor in it rejecting Chinese developer Zone Q Investments’ proposal at 88 Mill Point Road.

Zone Q had lodged plans to build a $174 million, 38-storey mixed-use development containing 163 apartments at the site.

But the DAP said that proposal (pictured below) was not acceptable, because it didn’t meet City of South Perth planning requirements for buildings over a certain height to be predominantly commercial use, despite Zone Q’s plan including five levels of hospitality, retail and office tenancies.

The requirement for commercial uses tripped up Edge Visionary Living’s 29-storey Lumiere proposal at 74 Mill Point Road, which was initially approved by the DAP last year, but that approval was set aside by the Supreme Court’s decision.

Last month, Edge Visionary Living said it was confident it could meet the commercial use requirement by converting half of the dwellings in its tower to short-stay apartments.

A fresh development application for 74 Mill Point Road, including short-stay apartments in a 44-storey tower, is yet to be assessed by the DAP.

Finbar Group, however, was successful at the same DAP meeting yesterday, winning approval for an amendment to its 21-storey proposal at 96 Mill Point Road.

Finbar’s amended proposal included an increased proportion of non-residential land uses, including hospitality and retail tenancies.