Melbourne’s Most Reinvented Suburbs

Beacon Cove, Port MelbourneONE has to wonder what “great Australian dream” some Melburnians were being sold last century.

Until recently – the 1980s and 1990s for most inner-city areas – owning an inner-city terrace was not necessarily a big deal. More often than not, according to veteran agents, they were used as “stepping stone” investments that could be paid off in a few years and sold on the basis of being “more attractive than renting”.

Buyers – particularly immigrants from Italy and Greece – bought in Richmond, North Fitzroy or Northcote, in order to save a deposit to build new, larger homes in Avondale Heights, Glenroy or – if they invested well – Doncaster.

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Circus Oz to Quit Port Melbourne For Collingwood in Spring, 2014

IT WILL be the end of an era in Port Melbourne next spring, when Circus Oz plans to cross town.

The unique business, one of only four in Australia supported as an ‘international company’ by both the state and federal governments – will relocate to a Skills Victoria owned site at 35 Johnston Street in the inner north-east suburb of Collingwood.

The circus’s outgoing Port Melbourne headquarters at 40 Bay Street is on crown land but may be sold down the track, as it fills a major gap separating the popular retail strip, from the beach.

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MAB Replaces Westgate Toll Collection Facility, Port Melbourne, with Expressway Business Park

GOVERNMENT human resource officers take note – another private development company is about to prove Treasury missed a chance to substantially boost its coffers.

MAB Corporation is slicing, dicing and readying to profit from a 3.1 hectare Port Melbourne facility it bought from the state government for a low $12.65 million six months ago (in a deal it didn’t have to pay stamp duty for).

The 12-62 Cook Street site was for years the toll collection facility for the West Gate Bridge. The easternmost boundary of the site offers 500 metres of exposure to an offramp of the West Gate Freeway, where 160,000 vehicles pass per day.

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RACV Calls For New Thoroughfare to Connect Melbourne’s East and West

AS PLANNERS continue to approve major new housing estates in Melbourne’s (until-recently-forgotten) western suburbs, a powerful state motoring body has called on the new state government to build a new major road thoroughfare, for what will be an imminent surge in car traffic.

The RACV forecasts 20,000 extra car trips will be travelled based on residential development at one new western suburb proposal alone, recently announced by Lend Lease (refer link below).

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MAB Plans $60 Million Business Park to Replace West Gate Collection Point, Port Melbourne

MAB Corporation plans to build a $60 million business park at a prominent Port Melbourne site it bought last month from the redundant Brumby government (highlighted, red, right).

The St Kilda Road based private developer, which at one stage was linked to buying Doncaster’s massive Eastern Golf Course, says it expects to lodge redevelopment plans for its new Cook Street site by the middle of this month. The Port Melbourne property is due to settle on January 7, 2011.

MAB commercial and industrial general manager Richard Johnston said the former Vicroads toll collection facility for the West Gate Bridge has a 500 metre frontage to the West Gate Freeway, and passing traffic of some 160,000 vehicles a day.

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Mirvac Reaps $13 Million From Port Melbourne Site Once Owned by GM Holden

MIRVAC is believed to have made about $13 million from the sale of a 4.4 hectare Port Melbourne development site, once owned by General Motors Holden.

The Sydney-based developer this week exchanged contracts to sell the cleared block of land, to a private investment company.

Mirvac’s Victorian development manager Christian Graham confirmed the sale but declined to comment on the details including buyer or price.

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Mirvac Reaps $13 Million From Port Melbourne Site Once Owned by GM Holden

MIRVAC is believed to have made about $13 million from the sale of a 4.4 hectare Port Melbourne development site, once owned by General Motors Holden.

The Sydney-based developer this week exchanged contracts to sell the cleared block of land, to a private investment company.

Mirvac’s Victorian development manager Christian Graham confirmed the sale but declined to comment on the details including buyer or price.

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Lease at Frank Costa’s Richmond Office to An Ex AFL President

Frank CostaKEEPING it in the AFL family, a company chaired by former Melbourne Football Club president Paul Gardner has leased offices at a Richmond project being developed by the current president of the Geelong Football Club, Frank Costa.

Financial services group Grey Australia New Zealand, of which Mr Gardner is an executive, will lease 940 square metres, being the entire second level, at Mr Costa’s 4 – 12 Amsterdam Street development, at the Cremorne end of the trendy inner-city suburb.

Market rents at the new three-storey building are between $300 and $320 per square metre, per annum.

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Victorian State Government Offloads More Inner-City Property

Victorian Premier John BrumbyTHE State Government is continuing to offload prime located development sites around freeway edges and wedges.

The latest listing, by the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance, is at 12 – 62 Cook Street, Port Melbourne, abutting the West Gate Freeway, on the city-side between Todd Road and Salmon Street.

The 3.1 hectare site is perhaps most recognized as being the VicRoads Westgate Training and Conference Centre.

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AFL’s Chris Newman to Sell Port Melbourne Townhouse

Chris NewmanTHE home that AFL footballer Brendan Fevola’s mobile phone may have been reportedly left, before a controversial picture of model Lara Bingle was circulated, has hit the market.

Richmond captain Chris Newman can expect to make between $600,000 and $660,000 for the double-storey Port Melbourne apartment at 50 Johnston Street, on the corner of Rouse Street, and only a block from the beach

Downstairs features an open-plan living and dining room with a full length courtyard, while upstairs is two bedrooms and the largest bathroom.

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