Another company has proposed a development for the long-neglected Mitchell Street hole in the ground at the old Chinatown site.

Olive Cook Pty Ltd has lodged plans for a 14-storey commercial tower at 68 Mitchell Street in Darwin’s CBD. Olive Cook acquired the site for $3.75 million last year.

Formerly earmarked for the unsuccessful Chinatown project 20 years ago, the 5,630 sqm block was previously valued at $20 million. The site fronts Mitchell Street, Mott Court, Peel Street, and Smith Street, next to the old BCC cinema.

Olive Cook applied to construct the 14-story building mixed-use building that comes with a three-level basement carpark—with 147 car spaces and 18 motorcycle spaces—accessed from Mott Court.

The building’s ground level will include a lobby, two commercial tenancies with frontages, and a plaza providing pedestrian access from Mitchell Street through the site with landscaped public seating sitting area. The plaza links to pedestrian access to Peel Street at the building’s backside.

The ground-level design, complete with landscaping and an enhanced streetscape encourages “day and night activity” and creates an attractive outdoor public space, documents said.

A mezzanine floor contains switchboard rooms a terrace, meeting rooms and a wellness studio (for tenants’ employees) and another commercial space.

Glass awnings along the Mitchell Street and Mott Court fronts will converge on both sides of the public plaza and planter boxes and vertical landscaping will be located above the awning, with the rooftop having a vertical garden.

Above the mezzanine, 12 levels of office spaces will be available for rent that come with a glass façade and horizontal sunshades.

A provision for a vast forecourt and a public plaza—with pedestrian access, for a possible alleyway to Smith Street, is also included in the plan. A causeway along Mott Court will also be built.

Since 2007, a total of seven developer applications for the 68 Mitchell Street site. Olive Cook’s development application is expected to be heard at the Development Consent Authority meeting on December 2.