Hargreaves Mall hotel developers lodge demolition permit with Heritage Victoria

Yet there is "a possibility" of keeping the 1872 brickwork in a laneway on the property's western side, advisers for a Hargreaves Mall hotel redevelopment have told Heritage Victoria.

Other walls, a roof and a facade would have to go, developer Bendigo Hotel Investments has told the government body in an application for a demolition permit.

BHI wants to build a six-storey hotel they believe will bring in tourists willing to spend $4.8 million to surrounding businesses each year.

Nothing significant would be destroyed if the development went ahead, BHI's advisers Michael Taylor Architecture & Heritage said in a heritage impact statement accompanying the permit application.

Developers would make minor alterations to a Mitchell Lane wall, making holes for several openings while closing others.

"But the bulk of the wall will remain," their heritage advisers wrote.

Getting Heritage Victoria's approval would be a major step forward for the project, which must jump through a lot of hoops before any build can commence.

They include BHI getting through the City of Greater Bendigo's planning processes. The developers lodged an application with the council last December and city planners are still considering it.

The Beehive Building and site, which includes the former Bendigo Mining Exchange, date back to the 1850s. The exchange was once the epicentre of gold and finance speculation as stock-brokers cashed in on the economic booms of Bendigo District's early days.

A second developer is already restoring the section of the Beehive Building that fronts Pall Mall, but they have not touched parts of the site opening onto Hargreaves Mall.

That section is not as historically important as Pall Mall's because it has no links to gold mining, the hotel's advisers concluded after reviewing historic newspaper clippings about the Beehive complex.

"(They were) nevertheless a very important institution in Bendigo for a long period," they wrote.

"The stores aspired to be on an equal footing with large stores in Melbourne."

The Victorian Heritage Registry and a 2001 conservation management plan have little to say about the Hargreaves Mall side of the complex, the advisers wrote.

What is clear is that the Beehive building was being steadily extended from Pall Mall to Hargreaves Street from the 1870s onwards, they noted.

They found evidence the complex had extended to Hargreaves Street by 1884, but it would take decades for it to take on its current structure.

"In 1887 a large alteration was made to add a furniture store in the 'middle portion' of the Beehive Stores," the advisers wrote.

By 1910 it was possible for shoppers to enter the building at Pall Mall and browse right through to Hargreaves Street, their research suggests.

Renovations took place in 1912 and the site was sold twice in the 1920s, including in 1927 to Allan & Co Pty Ltd, which created Allans' Walk.

The shops in that walkway are now largely vacant and Thomas Jewellers - which once faced out onto Hargreaves Mall - is closed.

The heritage features that remain are isolated from other older parts of the building and are difficult to interpret, the heritage advisers found.

"Importantly, there are no traces of the retail activities that formerly took place within," they said.

"The remaining fabric behind the three-storey front section can no longer convey a strong association to either the activities of the Beehive Stores or to its successive development in the twentieth century."

The advisers said the new building planned for the site had been designed with a respect of other commercial buildings in the area.

However, it would have a contemporary design.

"This allows the development to be clearly distinguishable as new against the existing heritage fabric," the advisers said.

"In turn the existing heritage fabric of the Beehive Building Complex can stand out against the distinct contemporary background."

To view the permit application's plans and heritage impact statement, or to lodge a submission about it, visit www.heritage.vic.gov.au/permits/currently-advertised-permits

Submissions on the heritage permit will close on Wednesday 12 February.