Wing Tai's $270m St Kilda Road tower to replace VACC building
Victoria's planning department cut 2.9m from Wing Tai's St Kilda Road tower, now 17 storeys, to replace the VACC building, per The Urban Developer.
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Singapore’s Wing Tai Holdings has been cleared to build a shoptop apartment tower at 464-466 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, according to The Urban Developer’s report of 4 November. The Victorian Department of Transport and Planning issued the permit after requiring a 2.9m height reduction, the outlet reports.
The site is about 4km south of the Melbourne CBD, near Albert Park and the Royal Botanic Gardens, and about 800m from Anzac station. Standing on it is the heritage-significant VACC building, the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce’s old headquarters, which was finished in the 1960s to a design by Bernard Evans, a former Melbourne Lord Mayor.
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Why it matters
The permit lets the site move from a previously approved 16-storey office building to a residential tower. That earlier approval also involved reconstructing the graded heritage building, the outlet says.
The approval also shows how the department handled a council objection. Port Phillip City Council recommended refusing the permit, but also suggested conditions for approval, including the height cut. The Urban Developer reports that the department’s assessment said the reduction would address the council’s concerns about visual bulk and scale.
Heritage treatment is the other live issue. A heritage consultant judged Cox Architecture’s “interpretive design” an appropriate balance between heritage and redevelopment, rather than a conservation-based outcome. The original metal facade will be dismantled and reinstated as the podium of the new tower, and the rest of the building will be demolished.
The numbers
The Urban Developer puts the project at $270.14 million. The original plan was for 18 storeys with 172 one-bedroom, 63 two-bedroom, 66 three-bedroom and 24 four-bedroom apartments. The 2.9m reduction brings the building to 17 storeys plus plant.
Other figures reported for the scheme:
- 371 sqm of retail
- Parking for 254 cars
- A swimming pool on level two
- Communal open space on level three
The site’s ownership trail starts in 2018, when Wing Tai and Abacus Property Group paid $95.38 million for it. Four years later Wing Tai acquired Abacus’s share, reportedly at a cost of $49.4 million.
The assessment described the tower’s “butterfly” form and material palette as a “high-quality architectural response”, according to the outlet.
What’s next
The Urban Developer’s report does not state a construction start or delivery date.
St Kilda Road is seeing other residential interest. The Urban Developer notes that Dexus is redeveloping an ageing office building on the road into a 27-storey apartment tower, and that Kokoda Property paid $100 million for another St Kilda Road site earlier this year. Our earlier story covers Fortis’s $131m The Gild in St Kilda.
Source: The Urban Developer, 4 November 2026.
Quick answers
What is the latest on 464-466 St Kilda Road?
Victoria's planning department cut 2.9m from Wing Tai's St Kilda Road tower, now 17 storeys, to replace the VACC building, per The Urban Developer.
Which companies are named in the 464-466 St Kilda Road story?
Wing Tai Holdings is named in this story, which cites The Urban Developer.
What are the key numbers for 464-466 St Kilda Road?
project value: $270m; storeys: 17; height cut: 2.9m.
Sources
Also reported by
- The Urban DeveloperWing Tai's 'Butterfly' Tower to Replace Melbourne's VACC Building
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