Revised Plans to Add Two New Towers to Brewery Site Approved in Perth

The plans to add an office tower and mixed-use tower onto the Emu Brewery site were conditionally approved.

29 May 2020 | Perth, Australia

Malaysian-backed developer AAIG's AU$140 million (US$93 million) Capital Square Perth plans have been conditionally approved on the controversial Emu Brewery site.

The revised plans add an 18-story office tower and a 32-story mixed-use tower—with a hotel on the upper levels and office space underneath—next to the Woolside tower at 98 Mounts Bay Road and 17 Mount Street, Perth.

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Capital Square (Complex)

Capital Square Tower 3

Capital Square Tower 2

One Capital Square

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One Capital Square

The already completed tower by Multiplex consists of 32 levels of office space as well as a four-story podium building with a gymnasium and pool in 2017.

The three buildings form the larger Capital Square Perth project which incorporates a public plaza.

However AAIG are currently in a legal battle over the site with LNG-giant Woolside who claim the new towers would be in breach of their 2016 lease agreement affecting the privacy, glare, and aesthetic appeal.

The design submitted in 2019 by Cox Architecture had to be revised to change the building composition.

The original plans came under scrutiny from the City of Perth Design Advisory Committee who said given the site is an iconic western gateway to Perth CBD the original plans were not satisfactory.

“The plan forms are not similar enough to really homogenize the design, nor different enough to create a meaningful composition,” the committee said.

“These spaces [the driveways] are a lost opportunity to provide a sense of discovery through improved landscaping and activation, inviting the public to move through the spaces and to discover the public plaza.”

The applicant revised the plans and responded to additional matters to improve designs for the hotel entry, canopy, and landscaping.
The 1930s Emu Brewery was on Swan River, it got demolished in 1991 and was sold to make way for Capital Square Perth.
The site near Swan River has been shrouded by controversy and was originally home to Emu Brewery which manufactured beer until the late 1970s and was then abandoned.

A lobby was set up to save the 1930s art-deco building however they were unsuccessful and it was demolished in late 1991.

For more on this story, go to The Urban Developer.