$150 Million Development Opposite Queen Victoria Market
Private developer Mider has confirmed it was the mystery buyer of a 1670-square-metre site at 243-263 Franklin Street, once part of the City Mazda dealership, at the north-west tip of the CBD.
The site, with a 40-metre frontage to Franklin Street and the Queen Victoria Market car park, sold to Mider for $6.5 million. It is now an open-air car storage yard.
Mider chief executive officer Anton Wilson said the company planned to build a 70-room boutique hotel in one building, and about 350 apartments in two towers, flanked by ground-floor retail. He expects to lodge plans to the Melbourne City Council this year. Knight Frank’s Clinton Baxter represented vendor Drapac in the sale. Mider was represented by ICR Property Group sales and leasing executive Guy Naselli and Raff De Luise.
Meanwhile, a consortium of China-based investors has paid $13 million for a 2547-square-metre development site next to the Mider site.
The 230 A’Beckett Street site – also once part of the City Mazda dealership – has a permit for a 26-level, 319-unit apartment project that would offer views over Flagstaff Gardens.
The site’s new owners, which sources say have not developed property in Melbourne before, intend to proceed with plans for the apartment tower.
Mr Baxter said the holding had now reaped $31.3million, following the sale of two smaller sites last October for $11.8 million to private developers. Drapac paid $23 million for the dealership in 2005, before subdividing it.
At one stage, the dealership was earmarked to become a campus-style office development, and is reported to have attracted interest from Victoria Police, and petroleum giant BP as possible tenants.
