Windsor gets final go-ahead

The redevelopment of Spring Street's Hotel Windsor will not begin for another 18 months, the group behind the controversial 26-storey tower plan says.

The Halim Group this week got the go-ahead for the final piece in the jigsaw of the $250 million redevelopment. Heritage Victoria has approved Halim's plans for a five-storey building on the corner of Spring and Bourke streets, opposite Parliament. The building on this corner site, built in 1963, previously housed the Hard Rock Cafe. Plans for both the 26-storey tower, designed by architects Denton Corker Marshall and which will smash height guidelines for the area, and the five-storey corner building were lodged with planning authorities in 2009.

The proposal became a long-running sore for the Brumby government, after then planning minister Justin Madden's office proposed a sham consultation process to justify halting the hotel's redevelopment. The 26-storey tower was approved, but the corner building was still under consideration by the heritage authority. Halim Group hotel director Adi Halim said the planning had taken more than two years. Now the corner building was approved, his family's company could begin more detailed planning on the heritage interior. Construction would not begin on either building before the second half of 2013, he said.

Source: The Age