By any Melbourne standard, 310 St Kilda Road is prime real estate: opposite the Royal Botanic Gardens, metres from the Shrine and National Gallery of Victoria, and a short stroll to the city centre.
And yet for more than two decades, this former repatriation building has sat rotting, while the Defence Department decided what to do with it.
Now, the building – which is included on the Commonwealth heritage list – is set to become part of the apartment wave washing over St Kilda Road.
The Defence Department last week formally listed the building for sale.
The land, deemed "surplus to operational and strategic requirements" by Defence, is worth in the ballpark of $8 million to $10 million once rezoned.
As it is, it's not clear what the beautiful but run-down historic Art Deco building – once criticised by Sir Arthur Streeton because its bricks were not bluestone – could be re-purposed as.
But its proposed sale has been greeted with fury by a small band of veterans who, for three years, have quietly lobbied the department to turn it into an art gallery for returned service men and women.
"The Turnbull Government has turned its back on contemporary veterans," said Mark Johnston, chairman of the Australian National Veterans Arts Museum.
The group has been trying to convince both Canberra and the Victorian government to transform the building into a veterans arts museum and centre, complete with gallery spaces and studios for returned soldiers.
Mr Johnston said the refusal to consider gifting the building for an arts centre was "bitterly disappointing". Up to 250 veterans had sought medical treatment there daily, he said, making it a particularly poignant site for returned soldiers.
An exhibition the group is staging of veterans' art opens next month, at a rented gallery space on Collins Street, and the charity hopes one day to have a permanent home for exhibitions like it.
The group was formed three years ago with the specific purpose of attempting to convince governments to turn the St Kilda Road building into a gallery. It will now lobby the Andrews government to buy the old Repatriation Clinic.
This push appears unlikely to succeed though, one state government figure indicated on Monday. Especially given the $17 million rehabilitation price tag the arts group's detailed business case indicates.
Opened in 1937, the building was central to the rehabilitation of veterans from both world wars, and the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. But it has sat vacant since 1995 – used only for storage.
"There are calendars from 1995 still on the walls," said Dominik Kul, who is also on the board of the veteran's group.
Real estate agents say the site's financial worth will only be realised if a buyer can get it rezoned for mixed use, allowing residential.
"Given the prestige and extraordinary position of the property, it will attract strong interest from a myriad of property groups based in Asia, as well as the whole range of local private and corporate buyers," said Savills Australia state director Clinton Baxter.
The Defence Department was contacted about the sale but did not respond by deadline.
