Casino owner sells Melbourne site once mooted for Trump Tower
Blackstone has sold the prominent riverfront Melbourne site mooted nearly 20 years ago to be Australia’s first Trump Tower.
The 5059 square metre parcel, 1-29 Queens Bridge Street, Southbank, opposite Crown Casino, collected $85 million from PDG Corporation following a deal announced by the parties mid-last year.
Blackstone seized the asset as part of its $8.9 billion buy-out of Crown Casino in 2022.
Former Crown owner, James Packer, with Schiavello Corporation, in 2019 failed to gain approval to replace the block with a 90 level hotel-based mixed-use development.
Following that submission, Crown bought the parcel from Schiavello for $80m.
Just before the GFC, Schiavello was reported to have been trying to secure the rights to use the Trump Tower brand, for a luxury residential based proposal (story continues below).
Next chapter for prime Southbank site
PDG, directed by Vince Giuliano, has now applied to replace the parcel with a 67 storey residential project with an expected end value of c$1.5b (artist’s impression, top). It will contain 483 apartments – some which might be allocated for a hotel, sources say.
The historic Queensbridge Hotel, one of the country’s biggest pubs, will be incorporated into the project, to be branded One Queens Bridge.
PDG is already seeking registrations of interest. Assuming the project is approved this year, the tower could be complete by 2029.
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