Two-storey home proposed at former Taj on Swan site

A proposal for a two-storey house on the former Taj on Swan site in Peppermint Grove will be considered by council next week.

Owner Simone Anagnostakis is proposing to build a two-storey home with a basement and swimming pool on an 890sqm lot at the corner of Keane Street and Bay View Terrace.

REIWA listed that the lot, a subdivision of the Keane Street superlot, was sold for $4.1 million around September last year.

According to realestate.com.au, former owners of fertiliser business Burrup Holdings, now operating as Yara Pilbara Holdings, Pankaj and Radhika Oswal bought the 6,582sqm ‘superlot’ site for $22.7 million in 2007.

The Oswals planned to build a $70 million six-bedroom home including 17-bay carpark and observatory with revolving roof, dubbed ‘Taj on Swan’.

However, construction was halted in 2010 when the Oswals left the country amid legal and financial disputes with ANZ and the Australian Taxation Office, which have since been settled.

The Shire of Peppermint Grove won the right to demolish the derelict building in 2016, and the former Taj on Swan site was put on the market, offered as one whole block or as six individual lots in 2018.

Businessman John Gillett bought the whole lot for $17 million in 2018 but received approval from the WA Planning Commission to subdivide the block in 2019.

Peter and Simone Anagnostakis had engaged Applecross-based architects leonhouse for their proposal, according to concept drawings in the council agenda.

The value of the proposed development has not been disclosed.

Shire officers said in the council report that proposed development had been described as an Iwan Iwanoff-inspired contemporary design.

“The main feature of the design is a curved swimming pool within the front setback area to make the most of morning sun and a simple rectangular built form with geometric window opening and joinery detail,” the report said.

The proposal seeks council's approval for variation to setbacks and the local planning policy, which councillors are due to consider at their meeting on Tuesday.

The Anagnostakis and Leonhouse had previously lodged a plan for a two-storey home with a pool in Floreat with the Town of Cambridge in 2020.

Shire president Rachel Thomas said the Anagnostakis' application was the third proposal seen by council after the block had been divided into lots.

Councillors approved with conditions John Maxwell Harris' application for a single-storey house with an attic, including two bedrooms and ensuites on the roof-space, on the adjoining lot at their February meeting.

Conditions include development to start within two years of the approval notice and for the applicant to submit a construction management plan and landscape plan before the building permit can be issued.