Illegally demolished Corkman Pub could be a soup kitchen
The site of the old Corkman Pub in Melbourne suburb Carlton is likely to become a soup kitchen or Salvation Army storage facility.
The pub was illegally bulldozed in 2016 by developers Raman Shaqiri and Stefce Kutlesovski, known as the ‘Corkman Cowboys’.
The pair was fined over $1 million and briefly jailed for destroying the historic pub that stood for 159 years.
Hopes that a VCAT order for a building on the site of the pub would be a hospitality venue have been dashed, with a spokesman for the developers confirming that only a facade modelled on the original building would be erected. VCAT’s amended enforcement order in 2023, required the site to be rebuilt with the external fabric of the building, including the detailed facades on Pelham and Leicester St, as well as the roofs.
Nash Project Management spokesman Sam Leslie told the Herald Sun the building be an empty shell inside.
“It’s not going to be a hospitality venue, no,’’ he said.
“It’s just the facade rebuild which is in accordance with the VCAT conditions.
“We’ve had some preliminary discussions with the Salvation Army to give it to them at a low rent cost for their use.
“It would be up to them what they ultimately do with it … it could be a soup kitchen, it could be for community use.
“The owners themselves don’t have a use for it, hence offering it up to the likes of the Salvation Army.’’
The developers had hoped to build a three-storey hospitality venue, but its $9m plans for a pub with rooftop terrace and three basement levels were rejected by the City of Melbourne in late 2022.
Leslie said the developers “did the wrong thing”, but were just following VCAT orders.
“They engaged the best of the best to do a full design, lodged that with council and it was based on the advice of heritage and architects that rebuilding that facade was not the best option,’’ he said.
“They are just doing what the council wanted at the end of the day which was ultimately against all the professional advice.
“Completely independent heritage architects and whatnot said what is being rebuilt shouldn’t be happening.’’
VCAT orders show the new building must be completed by May 2025.
Jonathan Jackson, 24th June 2024
