Former Austcorp Wheelers Hill Site Hits The Market With Permits

Opposite the Monash Gallery of Art and the Wheelers Hill Hotel, the prominent site was once a Mobil petrol station.

 

At one stage it was controlled by failed property and investment group Austcorp, which had planned to build a 10-plus level apartment tower to capitalise on the site’s elevated position and perspective over Melbourne’s eastern suburbs to the CBD. 

A four-level aged care facility had also previously been earmarked for the site, which has been criticised for ever being deemed appropriate for medium density apartments, given it is several kilometres away from a train station.

With a street address of 161 – 169 Jells Road, the site is the latest in a swag of development opportunities listed for sale this year.

The highest profile residential block offered, recently, is in Carlton, where Grocon is trying to sell a 2929 square metre site it just months earlier proposed to rebuild as a 90-level, 280 metre skyscraper with 800 flats.

Grocon was seeking $40 million for the parcel, which is on part of the 1.6 hectare former Carlton & United brewery that it paid the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology $39 million for in late 2006.

Recently, the Pratt family also listed for sale the California Hotel site on Barkers Road, Hawthorn, with plans for a $42 million high density apartment project.

Developers and agents agree demand for medium and high density residential has dropped in recent months. Some aren’t expecting significant capital value growth for at least another two years as buyers adjust to interest rates rising to more normal levels.

CB Richard Ellis agents Paul O’Connell and Andrew Leoncelli with Ammache Commercial are marketing the Wheelers Hill site.

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Marc Pallisco

A former property analyst and print journalist, Marc is the publisher of realestatesource.com.au.