A DEVELOPER who last week claimed he “acted swiftly” to protect the public from a building in danger of collapse is believed to have known of the Oriental Hotel’s danger for at least 10 months.
As reported by the Weekly last week, Evolve managing director Ashley Williams said structural engineers Aurecon Australia had re-inspected the building at the corner of Ann Street and Nelson Place in the wake of the Swanston Street wall collapse, which killed three people.
Mr Williams had said: “All our reports over the years indicated the building was unsalvageable and we cannot take a risk with public safety.
“Heritage is very important to us, but not at the expense of public safety . . .”
He also told Fairfax Media: “We would be negligent if we didn’t act to ensure the public weren’t at any risk at all”.
An earlier Aurecon report prepared for Evolve, dated June 22, 2012, stated that the “structure is in our opinion in an unsafe condition and we recommend that either restoration of the structure or demolition be carried out immediately.”
The report states that one option for the Oriental is “restoring the structure in accordance with our 2011 report”.
On Monday last week, a fence was erected around the Oriental and a sign stated: “This is a dangerous and unstable building and deemed a potential public hazard”.
Mr Williams said: “The instruction to us from Aurecon is to prohibit all access to areas within the cordoned area and seek demolition of the building as a matter of urgency.”
He subsequently invited the Weekly to tour the building to inspect its dangerous interior.
Williamstown residents are fighting to save the hotel, while Mr Williams says demolition is the only option.
The hotel is part of the Port Phillip Woollen Mill development site, which Evolve wants to develop into high-rise towers and townhouses, potentially housing 2000 people.
Speaking at the Oriental on Friday, Mr Williams said Aurecon’s latest report indicated the building could collapse in a storm, large gust of wind, earthquake or tremor.
“I don’t think you could restore it,” he said.
“We didn’t always have demolition in mind, but to be perfectly clear, when we purchased the site the building had already been closed and basically condemned about 10 years previously.
“We had a full detailed examination of the building done, just as we did for the Britannia Hotel, and of the two buildings this one’s obviously in very very poor condition and the advice we’ve had is that it’s not salvageable.”
Evolve wants to build a six-storey, 83-dwelling apartment block on the Oriental site, while it’s latest application for the mill site is for a 178-dwelling, 11-storey apartment block.
Save Williamstown spokesman Godfrey Moase said he believed the Oriental could be restored.
“If the developer feels saving this one building is beyond their technical and financial capacity, I can’t see how they have the means to build a 40-metre tower and over 800 apartments,” he said. —Goya Dmytryshchak
