Australian Red Cross Sells Southbank Carpark to Developers

IT might have seemed like just another inner-city development site sale, but it’s actually the end of an era.

The Australian Red Cross has sold another major piece of land near its outgoing Southbank headquarters, now that it is based across town.

The charitable organisation made $5 million from the sale of the 1448 square metre site at 127 – 129 Kavanagh Street, which is expected to make way for apartments.

At the moment, commuters taking the Kings Way offramp of the West Gate Freeway can peer over and see the site, which is configured as an open air car park.

But soon, this view will be blocked, as developers plan a 37-level skyscraper at the end of Balston Street, between the ARC’s outgoing property, and the busy offramp.

Gross Waddell’s Andrew Greenway and Michael Gross sold the ARC’s Kavanagh Street  property.

In 2001, the ARC sold a much bigger development site with four street frontages, in Southbank, to developer Central Equity for $20 million, which has been replacing the former ARC headquarters, with skyscrapers.

At the same time, the ARC purchased a new North Melbourne facility for $7.1 million, which is its new headquarters.