4-8 Charles Street, South Perth

4-8 Charles Street, South Perth

Rezone + Development: 4-8 Charles Street, South Perth. South Perth ACP + Amendment 61 Purchased as Mixed Use Commercial, Rezone Pending.

Site Background

The site consists of two adjacent properties: 4 Charles St and 6-8 Charles St, South Perth being located on the south side of Charles Street, approximately 3km from the CBD and adjacent to the proposed South Perth train station location.

The site is rectangular in shape with a street frontage of approximately 56.4 metres, a depth of approximately 42.2 metres and a total site area of approximately 2,379 sqm. The site is surrounded by incredible amenity and can access the CBD via water ferry from the South Perth foreshore to Elizabeth Quay.

4 Charles Street is occupied by a two-level commercial building, 6 Charles Street comprises a two storey, freestanding office accommodation and 8 Charles Street comprises a freestanding residential building, converted into office over two levels. The site was purchased in January 2021 and provides holding income.

Planning

The South Perth Station Precinct has a long and contentious planning history. The current controls were applied in 2013 and sought to facilitate medium and high-density mixed-use development (with a focus on office and non-residential land uses) to support the development of a train station in the area. After the introduction of the controls, Council found the scale of development occurring in some areas was greater than originally anticipated due to the nature of the controls, which effectively facilitated heights over and above the height limits on particular sites without sufficient scrutiny or control.

In 2015, Council sought to amend the scheme to provide greater built form control in this area. While the Council was successful in introducing some additional performance requirements for developers seeking variations from the development requirements (such as height), the Minister did not support the introduction of a mandatory height limits across the precinct.

Since 2015, Council has undertaken further strategic work and reviewed the vision to identify ways to provide greater built form certainty and to manage growth in a way that captures the most benefit for residents, workers and visitors.

City of South Perth has prepared an updated draft Activity Centre Plan (ACP) to guide planning and development in this area into the future. The plan is a response to the metropolitan regional plan which identifies South Perth as a District Centre for infill development, population and employment growth. The State Government has set an infill housing target of 8,300 new dwellings for the City of South Perth. The South Perth ACP is expected to accommodate a significant proportion of these new dwellings due to its accessibility and proximity to the CBD. There is also a desire to increase the population and employment base in this area to provide the critical mass of users needed for development of the train station in future.

The Draft Activity Centre Plan (and accompanying Amendment No. 61) proposes to rezone the South Perth Station Precinct to Centre (R-AC0) with a range of building heights and plot ratios specified for each of the four sub-precincts. 

The site at 4-8 Charles Street is within the Richardson precinct of the ACP and has the most significant height and plot ratio limits. The proposed base height limit is 50.7m with a plot ratio of 7.2. Additional height up to a maximum 9.8 plot ratio (123.3m height limit specified) is also achievable where certain requirements can be met.

In March 2021, The South Perth Activity Centre Plan and Amendment 61 is before Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) and is anticipated will be approved by the planning minister imminently.

Status

The property currently provides a holding income and is intended to be developed post gaining development approval.