‘Cowboy developers’ might still build high-rise tower on Corkman Pub site
The developers who were fined $1.325 million for illegally demolishing a 158-year-old Carlton pub have struck a deal that could allow them to replace the pub with a 12-storey tower, the ABC has reported.
Raman Shaqiri and his company 160 Leicester Pty Ltd demolished the Corkman Irish Pub without the necessary permits in October 2016, after buying the pub in 2015 for $4.67 million.
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In the wake of widespread public outrage, Shaqiri and 160 Leicester co-director Stefce Kutlesovski promised in a letter sent to Victorian planning minister Richard Wynne that they would rebuild the pub.
But the pair never made good on this pledge, and were later fined $1.325 million plus costs – in addition to a $600,000 fine for moving asbestos from the demolition site to a construction site surrounded by homes at Cairnlea – after pleading guilty in May 2017 to knocking down the pub without building or planning approval.
Within months of the building’s illegal demolition, Wynne and the Melbourne City Council also sought an enforcement order compelling the developers to rebuild the pub. But that order has now been overturned, after it was found “not to be legally sound”.
The developers have consequently managed to strike a deal that allows the site to become a temporary public park and simultaneously opens the door for further development down the track.
The site where the Corkman Irish Pub once stood. Picture: Rob Leeson/Herald Sun
“The planning system cannot be used to punish these egregious behaviours,” Wynne told ABC Radio Melbourne.
“We have taken the action needed to ensure this iconic site is given back to the community and continues to be a space the public can enjoy into the future.
“These cowboy developers have already been subject to record fines — this order requires them to make good on the site and sets strict controls on any future developments.”
The developers will have until mid-2022 to submit a planning application that requires the approval of the planning minister and the council, and media reports have suggested that planning rules will allow for a 12-storey tower.
Should the developers fail to meet their 2022 deadline, they will be forced to rebuild the external parts of the original two-storey pub. But opposition planning spokesman Tim Smith said these punitive measures would be inadequate punishment for such reckless behaviour.
“I think the book should be thrown at these people far [more] harshly than it has been,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
