Heritage revamp, apartment towers planned for East Perth

Finbar Group has lodged plans for a two-tower apartment building on the site of the heritage-listed chemical labs in East Perth.

Consultancy group element has submitted a proposal on behalf of Finbar for a 38-storey and a 27-storey development on the corner of Hay Street and Plain Street.

The development is anticipated to have an end value of $200 million, comprising 331 apartments, 13 dining and retail tenancies and 370 car bays, with plans also proposing an adaptive re-use of the Materials Science Building.

The 5,353 square metre site was the primary location for the state government’s chemical laboratories from 1942 to 2009, with various buildings constructed and subsequently demolished during that time, except for the Materials Science Building, which was built in 1952.

Finbar plans to retain and adapt the 550sqm heritage-listed building to cater to a hospitality tenancy.

Designed by SS Chang Architects, the residential apartment towers will be positioned behind the Material Science Building, housing 136 one-bedroom dwellings, 147 two-bedroom dwellings and 48 three-bedroom dwellings.

The development application proposes variations to the Chemistry Centre Design Guidelines.

That includes a five-storey podium height exceeding the permitted four-storey podium height limit.

Propopsed site coverage also slightly exceeds the guidelines by 3 per cent (the maximum permitted is 80 per cent) and the 351 residential car parking bays extends beyond the maximum permitted 331 residential car bays.

The development application is now open for public comment, with consultation closing August 20.

The site is about 100 metres from Finbar’s Vue Tower development.

Last year, Finbar Group and joint-venture partner Ventrade purchased the site for $16 million, following a state government tender process.

At that time, Finbar managing director Darren Pateman said the group had tried to purchase the site many times over the past eight years, with a previous tender awarded to Diploma Group.

Diploma had proposed a $160 million project, before the company collapsed in 2016.