Council backs landmark Docklands build-to-rent tower – but warns “the great Australian dream in Melbourne is dead”

The City of Melbourne has thrown its support behind a major build-to-rent (BTR) tower at the gateway to Docklands, endorsing plans for the prominent corner of Harbour Esplanade and La Trobe St to the state government with a suite of conditions.

Councillors backed the plans at the October 7 Future Melbourne Committee (FMC) meeting, praising the overall quality of the Fender Katsalidis-designed scheme and its potential to add hundreds of new rental homes while tightening crucial design requirements around overshadowing, wind, and ground-floor activation. The plans now go before State Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny for final approval.

The development by Salta Properties, which most recently submitted plans for a hotel at the site in 2019, proposes around 560 BTR apartments across a 32-storey tower rising from a seven-level podium at a long-vacant site described by Fender Katsalidis architect Nicky Drobis as a “missing tooth” of Docklands.

Council officers have sought changes to reduce shadow impacts along Harbour Esplanade, requiring further wind modelling and mitigation to improve the public realm, and to secure a more active building edge at street level so the ground plane contributes to life on the waterfront, not just residents inside the building.

The scheme also includes an affordable housing contribution of 4.6 per cent, and a landscaped forecourt that must be reconciled with Melbourne Water’s flood-resilience requirements.

Endorsing the motion, the council’s planning chair and Deputy Lord Mayor Roshena Campbell said the corner site was “a landmark location” at the water’s edge and that the council’s conditions were aimed squarely at citymaking essentials – sunlight, wind comfort, and active edges – so the building “works for everyone who uses Harbour Esplanade, not only future residents.” 

She added that while the council was “acutely aware of the need to deliver more housing,” protecting public amenity in Docklands remained non-negotiable.

Lord Mayor Nick Reece said the proposal was “an elegant new building … a proud addition to the skyline” in what he described as Melbourne’s postcard view looking back to the Hoddle Grid. Cr Reece underlined the importance of activation, too.

“With some of the build-to-rent applications before us, we’ve seen buildings that really look in on themselves,” he said, stressing that Melbourne “likes busy streets with lots of people, and permeable buildings where people are coming and going.”

The council’s debate also laid bare a bigger trend: Docklands is fast becoming Melbourne’s BTR capital. The precinct has seen a wave of large BTR schemes in recent years, with councillors noting that the pipeline of traditional “build-to-sell” apartment projects had slowed to a “trickle”.

In unusually blunt closing remarks, Cr Campbell said, “the great Australian dream in Melbourne is dead,” pointing to the scarcity of for-sale proposals coming before the council and urging system-wide work – through the inner-city M9 councils – to revive build-to-sell supply alongside BTR and student housing.

On the specifics of the 699 La Trobe St site, the proponent’s team told councillors the design intentionally avoids a continuous “wall” of built form along Harbour Esplanade. The tower mass is split into two interlocking volumes with varied setbacks to break down scale, while a shoulder-height podium is to be screened with apartments to keep the street active.

Entries are planned on all frontages, and all loading and back-of-house functions are consolidated to the rear lane to keep the corners as public as possible. The council’s wind and overshadowing conditions will require additional design refinements before any approval is finalised.

Salta, which has recently opened its “Est.” BTR brand in Fitzroy North and has begun a large Richmond project, welcomed the endorsement.

“We welcome the council’s support for 699 La Trobe and will continue to work with authorities to finalise approvals and deliver much-needed rental homes in Docklands,” a spokesperson said, adding that the company intended to push quickly into design documentation so the project could proceed next year, subject to ministerial consent.

Councillors queried the Salta team about event-day operations around Marvel Stadium, the nearby tram super-stop on La Trobe St and construction logistics on a corner that carries heavy pedestrian flows.

The developer said it would prepare a detailed construction management plan for City of Melbourne approval and that it had held “positive dialogue” with the AFL about Marvel Stadium interfaces and access during and after construction.

The council also pressed for assurances on the scheme’s street-level life. The applicant said it was exploring a publicly accessible café or similar offer on the corner while committing to visible and welcoming resident spaces that contribute to passive surveillance and day-to-day activity on both La Trobe St and Harbour Esplanade. The council’s condition calls for “further design measures or a ground-floor retail tenancy” to address the lack of active edge fronting the waterfront.

On the same night, councillors supported another major student residential project in Carlton, prompting the Lord Mayor to hail more than $300 million in new investment going through the chamber.

But his broader message echoed the Deputy Lord Mayor’s: while BTR and student accommodation are helping Melbourne meet urgent housing demand, the city also needs a stronger pipeline of for-sale apartments – including larger, family-sized homes – if it wants to restore a path to ownership for more Melburnians. •