It may look like a normal building, but what’s planned for the interior has residents furious.

Angry residents and business owners have protested against a swingers club set to open just a few minutes’ walk from a primary school.

The two-storey building on City Road in South Melbourne, which once housed an IT company, will soon be transformed into a 200-capacity swingers club called Pineapples Lifestyle Bar.

Architect Tony Baenziger is one of dozens of people protesting the club, which is set to open in November.

He and more than 100 community members believe the club does not belong in the busy area, which is home to a school, a residential apartment building, businesses and a church.

“It’s very important for people to understand that we don’t have a problem with the business, even though it’s not my business,” Baenziger told Daily Mail Australia.

“We just don’t want it here. It’s not the right place.”

The swingers club, which describes itself as “Melbourne’s premier adult playground”, plans to open between 10am and 2am, seven days a week, offering drinks and live music.

“Our purpose-built venue features an industry-leading design, furnishings and event programme, designed to elevate hedonistic events to a never-before-seen level of sophistication, excitement and thrill,” the website states.

‘Early in the evening, the ground floor operates in a very similar way to traditional venues you may have attended before. However, as the night progresses, you may see people slowly (and sometimes quickly) stripping down to their underwear.

‘Our unique, thorough screening, preparation and presentation process ensures that only the most respectful, consent-focused and diversely inclusive individuals attend our events.’

But Mr Baenziger, who has run a business next to the new club for 34 years, believes it will affect both his customers and his staff.

“Our clients come to our offices and they will have to go through this place,” he said.

‘We are concerned about noise. We are concerned about waste management. We are concerned about our young female staff.

“We’re very concerned, especially during the winter months when it gets dark early and they have to walk to their cars. It’s not great as it is now, but having a place like this next door isn’t great.”

Despite receiving 33 written objections from local residents, Port Phillip City Council gave the green light for the club to open.

Mr Baenziger has lodged a challenge with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal as a last resort to prevent the case going ahead.

A key detail that has angered parents is that children will walk past the club to get to the local primary school.

“There are a lot of kids who walk. Their parents walk them to school and they walk past our office, which means they would have to walk past this place,” Baenziger said.

“It’s an area that we’d like to think would be more appropriate for family and even personal businesses.”

More than 120 people have also signed an online petition to stop the bar from opening.

“This location is totally unsuitable for a premises of this nature, given its proximity to residential areas, schools and family businesses,” he said.

‘Despite numerous objections from local residents and business owners, the council has granted a permit that fails to take into account the character and values ​​of our neighbourhood and what the area should aim to achieve in the future.’

Mr Baenziger hopes VCAT will prevent the swingers club from opening once it sees community objection.

“The world has gone mad,” he said.

‘These places used to be all in the back blocks of industrial areas. Now you can put them practically anywhere.’

Pineapples Lifestyle Bar has been contacted for comment.