Vansan Central looks as though it may, finally, be going ahead. As a reminder, Vansan Central will be eight storeys high, with 39 apartments and (I believe) a restaurant on the ground floor, shops, and a common space/atrium on the top floor. (Some high resolution pictures are available from Vansan's site.) Hoarding has been erected and the site has been cleared. A poster over at Skyscrapercity.com has put up a picture of the cleared site. Here's a Google Street View reminder of how it looked previously (complete with billboard for the new development):
Depsite not being located directly on Lonsdale Street, Vansan Central should make a significant impression from that street as it extends from Scott Street back to the other side of the Albion. Note from that last picture that it will also have the virtue of making the concrete back wall of Thomas Street House invisible from Lonsdale Street. I expect it will create its own concrete wall, however, on the side facing Thomas Street. This would leave the (2 storey) corner block with two such walls towering over it. One can only hope the block gets developed one day into something attractive that perhaps even towers over the other two.
Vansan Central has been a long time in the making, with construction originally intended to start in April 2010. From what I recall, the apartments in this building sold out quite quickly after being released (over a period of about half a year, ending in February 2010); no development in Dandenong with pre-sales since then has been as successful, and it's made me wonder whether the long delay with Vansan caused skepticism in buyers and investors with other developments in the area. That's just speculation, of course — it's much more likely that sufficient demand simply isn't there just yet.
Private developments within central Dandenong have had little success over the life of the revitalisation project. There have been quite a few private plans created and stamped, some of which have gone to market, but just one of those went to construction: the Arkana building. That's remarkable, when you think about it, and you'll have to forgive my temporary pessimism and exasperation. The original interest in revitalising the city came way back in 2003. Here we are, 10 years and $290 million (or so) of debilitating construction work later, and there's virtually no return on that investment being seen in the city centre. In fact, the contrary seems to be true for the moment. Every major retail store has cossetted themselves in the Plaza rather than exposing themselves to the air and life of a real street. The NAB has moved out, Savers and Harvey World have shifted to Fountain Gate, Dixon's has disappeared, Officeworks and The Good Guys have migrated to Dandenong South, and those are just the ones I can remember right this minute!
Granted, there's quite a bit of private investment going on around the centre, and lots of private interest in the area (plenty of plans and permits) — which is why I haven't lost hope for the place. I also think that the government and council construction work that is now (or nearly) complete has laid great foundations for an interesting city experience. I don't think it's a question of whether Dandenong will become a thriving city. I think it's a question of when, and I hope to be around to see it.
To that end, that Vansan Central is finally kicking off is immensely important. However, its construction will pass by with only a minor positive impact on the city if it goes up alone (much like Arkana). I think the best practical prospect that this city has for getting into a healthy development cycle at this point is for the other two major "almost there" developments to also start construction this year --- i.e., Mosaic and City Rise. Those developments going up together would erase any doubts in the minds of buyers and investors about whether Dandenong is truly ready to change. Were I the state government, I'd be intervening in some way to make sure it happened; but that's unlikely, so we'll have to hope the market, which has been way too unkind to central Dandenong so far, has a change of heart.