A FILTHY Knox smorgasbord restaurant shut down after being slapped with $85,000 fines for shocking food safety breaches is now slated for a massive high-rise development.

The all-you-can-eat Food Star Knox City is now closed and the prime Burwood Highway site opposite Westfield is up for sale, earmarked for an eight-storey, 94-apartment building plus luxury townhouses.

Food Star Knox City Holding Pty Ltd was convicted and fined $60,000 for scores of breaches of the Food Act including failing to keep the restaurant clean, failing to make sure staff washed their hands after coughing or sneezing, failing to take measures to eradicate and prevent pests and failing to store food to protect against contamination.

Director Xi Kai Liu was also found guilty of close to 50 breaches and was convicted and fined $25,000 at the hearing in Dandenong Magistrates’ Court in December last year.

Knox City Council took action against the Wantirna South restaurant which is now named and shamed on the State Government’s convictions register website.

RELATED: OWNER DEFENDS $40K FINE FOR FOOD BREACHES

The breaches date back to October 2015 and include several contraventions of clean-up orders.

In an email to Leader, Food Star spokesman Stephen Fang confirmed the Knox restaurant was closed and would be demolished, with plans to turn it into an eight-storey apartment complex.

“Each Foodstar restaurant is owned and operated by hard working locals and the Knox restaurant was open for over 20 years without any reported health incidents,” Mr Fang said.

It in unclear when the decision was made to shut the restaurant and sell the site.

A sign on the door says the restaurant will be “reopening at a later date due to renovations”.

media_camera A sign on the door of the restaurant. Picture: Steve Tanner

The site is in the area known as Knox Central, which the council wants to turn into “the most well known and population destination in the east of Melbourne”.

This includes discretionary height controls that could allow buildings up to 13 storeys in some parts along Burwood Highway.

A real estate sign on the property advertises an upcoming auction of the “landmark” 5568sq m site.

media_camera The restaurant could be replaced with high-rise apartments. Picture: Steve Tanner

An online listing said the “the prime development site” represented rare scope for a multi-dwelling site with plans pending for 28 luxury townhouses, 94 apartments over eight levels, a restaurant, office and gymnasium, subject to council approval.

Knox Council city development director Angelo Kourambas said it had received two building applications for the site.

The first related to front of the site, within the Knox Central area, for an eight-storey apartment building with 94 apartments, basement, restaurant, office, and gym.

Mr Kourambas said the Knox Central Urban Design Framework identified this area as appropriate for development of three-five storeys with a mix of uses, with an 18m preferred height limit.

The second application applied to the remainder of the land, currently being used for car parking, for 28 three-storey townhouses.

This portion of land has a height limit of 13.5m.