The building's sawtooth roof. Credit:Eddie Jim Like many other buildings Whelan has wrecked, 488 La Trobe street doesn't have any heritage protections. A Hong Kong-owned property developer, Spacious, bought the property in 2014 for $10 million and now has approval for 105 apartments. Mr Wynne has put the blame for the building's imminent loss on the city council, who he argues should have sought a heritage listing earlier. The council asked last May for the building to be protected, only to have Mr Wynne reject the request this year.

Residents Sharon Vladusic and Lynda Clark, who live next door to the La Trobe Street building to be removed. They want the Andrews government to save it. Credit:Eddie Jim Built for a tinsmithing company, the Renaissance revival-style facade has a classic sawtooth roofline, designed by architect Thomas Watts. A heritage study in 1985, also for the city council, found it had "high integrity" for a structure of its type. St Kilda's now demolished Greyhound Hotel, which Mr Wynne also declined to save. The vacant site is now on the market for more than $7 million. Credit:Pat Scala A three-year campaign by residents in townhouses next door, to save the building and stop the apartment block replacing it, has come to nothing.

Late last month the campaigners got a letter from Whelan the Wrecker, saying the building would soon go. A September 2016 image of the tower planned for the La Trobe Street site. Credit:Spacious Sharon Vladusic has been part of the fight and said 488 La Trobe Street should have been heritage-listed long ago. "It's missed out because of a series of administrative and ministerial failures," said Ms Vladusic. "We've got a beautiful building that Richard Wynne has ignored all requests to retain."

The residents took the council's approval of the project (by officers while council elections were on last October) to the state planning tribunal and lost in August. The La Trobe Street building's destruction will follow a rash of other historic buildings Mr Wynne has declined to save – most recently St Kilda's Greyhound Hotel. It was knocked down by developers seeking approval for apartments. They bulldozed the old pub, got their permit, and now the vacant site is for sale again, with an asking price upwards of $7 million. The West Melbourne residents say that, unlike the Greyhound, it's not too late to save La Trobe Street. Last week, they wrote to Premier Daniel Andrews, pleading with him to step in. It wasn't the first time they had written, only to be directed back to Mr Wynne.

Whelan the Wrecker's Richard Lin – named on the works notice residents were sent as the responsible person for demolition – on Wednesday declined to answer questions about when the planned removal would begin. He referred enquiries to Spacious which, on Wednesday, did not respond to phone calls or emailed questions about the project. In July, an officer representing Mr Wynne told the city council he would not reconsider his decision to decline a heritage listing for the property. On Wednesday, a spokesman for the minister said the council had issued a permit for the tower before he had considered the interim heritage protection application. But Melbourne City Council deputy chair of planning, the Greens' Rohan Leppert, said this was not correct, as Mr Wynne had ample opportunity in 2016 to consider protecting the building.

He said too many heritage buildings had been lost in the central city. "We need to hold onto them," he said. The council had completed every heritage study that could have been asked of it for 488 La Trobe Street, he said. Heritage expert Rohan Storey said it was still "perfectly possible" to incorporate large parts of the La Trobe Street building into a new development. "But it would have meant a reduction in units," said Mr Storey, who is the vice-president of lobby group Melbourne Heritage Action. "It's economically more appealing to [Spacious] not to keep any part of the building."