Grand hotel haunted for Labor
The redevelopment of the heritage-listed Windsor Hotel, an issue that damaged the Brumby Labor government four years ago, has returned to haunt the Andrews administration, with the hotel developer conceding it will not complete the $330 million revamp before the legal deadline of January 2017.
Work has stalled on the Windsor hotel redevelopment.
It is now likely the new Labor government will be asked to grant a special extension of time to complete the project, including a 93-metre tower to the rear of the hotel, slammed by former planning minister turned opposition leader Matthew Guy as a "disgrace" and a "scar" on Melbourne's heritage.
The government also faces an uncomfortable decision in mid 2015 on whether to support a strict height limit on the Windsor site of just 23 metres, after Mr Guy last year imposed a temporary limit subject to a review.
Shortly before Christmas the owner/developer, the Halim group, erected a sign to mark the belated start to the overhaul of the hotel once known as the Duchess of Spring Street.
Halim Group spokesman Michael Smith said his client was forced to begin 'early works' to meet the planning permit condition that the redevelopment start by January 10, 2015.
He said the early works would include creating access to allow removal of hazardous material from the 1960s-era northern wing on the Bourke Street corner, the location for some years of the Hard Rock Cafe. Demolition of the Bourke Street corner building would follow at a later stage.
However the bulk of the redevelopment, including the Denton Corker Marshall-designed 26-level tower and refurbishment of the 19th century hotel interior, is some time off, with detailed planning and design incomplete, finance not in place, and no major builder contracted.
The Windsor, Melbourne's last grand hotel, continues to take bookings until January 2016, further evidence that there is no intention to start the substantial project this year.
Mr Smith insisted the Halim group remained committed to the hotel rebuild, and had refused numerous purchase offers for the site. He said an approach had been made this week.
But he said work would take up to four years, taking the project two years past the legal deadline for completion - January 10, 2017. To finish the job Halim will have to seek an extension from the Labor government.
Given Labor's sensitivity to the Windsor issue, it is a decision the Andrews government would no doubt prefer not to make ahead of the 2018 election.
Just over four years ago, on the cusp of the 2010 election campaign, the then Brumby government planning minister Justin Madden backflipped on an earlier plan to reject the high rise scheme and approved one of largest hotel revamps in Australia.
The approval was all but inevitable after a wayward email by Madden's press secretary to the ABC revealed a plan for a sham public consultation to justify refusal of a permit.
The ensuing row over Labor's lack of planning credibility - one of the most damaging of the Bracks/Brumby years - effectively destroyed Madden's political career, and contributed to John Brumby's demise at the 2010 poll.
Over the four subsequent years the Halim group failed to start work, blaming delays on ongoing rows over heritage and with the MFB over fire risks.
Throughout, former planning minister and now Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, stridently opposed the tower. Last year he successfully fought the hotel's application for a permit extension, and he imposed the temporary, strict height controls in the parliamentary precinct including a limit of just 23 metres for the Windsor site.
Had the Halim group failed to start work by January 10, its tower plan would have been history.
If the Windsor is a bomb site come January 2017 but major works such as the foundations or early floors of the tower are under way, the Andrews government would be expected to agree to an extension of the completion date.
But if the only work done to that point is, for instance, the demolition of the 1960s building on Bourke Street, critics will likely argue the developer has failed, and that the permit should lapse.
In response to questions from The Age, government spokeswoman Vanessa Williams said the Minister for Planning would consider any request for an extension of the Windsor permit on its individual merits, as it would for any other permit holder.
Either way, Matthew Guy will have the Windsor front and centre - politically and literally - to needle Labor in the lead up to the 2018 election. Located in Spring Street almost at the feet of the Parliament, will be either a controversial skyscraper in progress as a symbol of Labor dodginess, or a bomb site as evidence of its inability to handle the economy and build things.
Opposition planning spokesman David Davis said the government must abide by planning rules in any decisions about the Windsor. "And the government must come clean on when this project will start and when it will finish."
Source : The Age Royce Milller 20th January 2015
