Aerial Camberwell
News Victoria 

FKP Launches Aerial, at Camberwell Junction’s Former Henley Honda Site

Aerial CamberwellTHE site that became the subject of a messy planning dispute between Melbourne’s most ambitious planners, and arguably its most conservative council – is ready to be developed.
 
Last Thursday, Sydney-based developer FKP officially launched Camberwell’s Aerial project, to be developed on the former Henley Honda site at the busy Camberwell Junction.
 
The proposal will include two nine-level glass apartment towers with 144 units, a 14-level glass office building and a shopping centre. Aerial is due for completion in 2012.

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Victoria 

New Record Price Expected to be Set For Melbourne’s Western Suburbs

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A LANDMARK property on the suburb border of Newport and Williamstown is expected to smash the record price paid for a home in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
 
Hocking Stuart Williamstown’s Wayne Elly is expecting up to $8 million for the Sea Gates estate at 62 The Strand, which has rear access to Yarra Street.
 
The massive 3,500 square metre property includes two historic homes –  Sea Gates and the smaller Dachet – and enjoys postcard views over Hobsons Bay to the Melbourne CBD.

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Victoria 

TRUenergy Expands and Re-Leases at 385 Bourke Street, Melbourne

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EXCITABLE Gas and Electricity Supplier TRUenergy has decided to stay put at its 385 Bourke Street office, on the footstep of the Bourke Street Mall.
 
TRUenergy will slightly expand the amount of space it leases at the building, to 9,295 square metres, over seven contiguous floors.
 
TRUenergy’s lease at the Commonwealth Property Office Fund owned tower was due to expire next November. 

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Victoria 

Kraft Foods to Sublease Prominent Port Melbourne Office, Ahead of Move to South Wharf

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THE outgoing Kraft Foods building – one of the inner-city’s largest standalone offices – is for rent.
 
The high-tech suburban headquarters – built for but never occupied by Boeing Industries ten years ago, measures 10,230 square metres and includes 360 car spaces.
 
The 187 Todd Road office is owned by Challenger which reportedly paid Salta $46 million for it, and a 12,000 square metre office warehouse at 300 Lorimer Street in 2002. Kraft is relocating to new offices at South Wharf.

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Victoria 

Mario Salvo’s Salvest Capital Pays $15 Million For 128 Exhibition Street, Melbourne

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SELF made millionaire Mario Salvo has paid $15 million for an 11-level office building, in a burgeoning pocket of the CBD.
 
The 128 Exhibition Street office – which failed to sell after a public campaign 18 months ago – was offloaded by AMP Capital Investors, which paid $5 million for the asset in 2000.
 
The building will be retained as an investment in Salvest Capital, Mr Salvo’s newly formed commercial real estate investment company, which is directed by prominent Sydney-based property executives Hamish Bowman and James Maitland.

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Port Phillip Bay
Victoria 

Major Harbour Planned For Melbourne’s Werribee South

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Port Phillip BayONE of Port Phillip Bay’s largest and last undeveloped sites will be transformed into a major entertainment, commercial and residential village built around a major new harbour, two beaches and a 1000 berth marina – one of the biggest in Victoria.
 
The state government, Wyndham City Council and the owner of Werribee South land around the proposed marina – interests associated with Melbourne’s wealthy Liberman family – are expected to unveil plans and images of Wyndham Harbour next week, according to sources.
 
The proposal – worth about $440 million – is said to include a hotel, retail and restaurant precinct, yacht club, apartments and detached housing. 

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Victoria 

Reading Cinema Plans to Redevelop Former Moonee Ponds Market After 13 Years

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AFTER 13 years, US-based cinema giant Reading is preparing to redevelop the former Moonee Ponds Market, in Dame Edna Everage’s home town.
 
In its most recent annual report Reading said it is finalising plans to redevelop the 3.3 hectare site, which was home to the popular market until about the mid 1990s.
 
A permit granted on the site in 1997 but which has lapsed, was for a 12-cinema complex.

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Walter Burley Griffin
Victoria 

Walter Burley Griffin Open Day Planned

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Walter Burley GriffinAN open day to showcase the architectural union of Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Mahoney Griffin has been co-ordinated for Sunday December 6 in Melbourne.
 
Open for inspection will be the Langi Flats building at the northeast corner of Toorak and Lansell roads, in Toorak, Beament Residence in Kew and the Essendon Incinerator, which is actually in Moonee Ponds. These projects were built between 1924 and 1930.
 
Three homes around Heidelberg will also be on display, including the Roy Lippincott Residence, developed in 1917, Pholiota Griffin Residence (1922) and the Vaughan Griffin Residence (1924). 

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Victoria 

Another Apartment Tower Earmarked For Behind Melbourne High School

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ANOTHER week, and another high rise apartment project has been unveiled in South Yarra.
 
This time, the former Kookai office and warehouse at 50 Claremont Street will be demolished, and replaced with a 20-level, 188-unit apartment building, designed by architect Bird de la Coeur, with interiors by Hassell.
 
Many of the units in the $110 million Claremont South Yarra development will offer unobstructed city and township views over Melbourne High School.

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Victoria 

Ex Stockland and Mirvac Exec Announces West Footscray Townhouse Project

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THE man who bought high rise living to South Yarra ten years ago, and helped develop Beacon Cove in Port Melbourne, has turned his hand to another development, on West Footscray’s Stony Creek.
 
Former Mirvac and Stockland executive Cameron Alderson’s latest development proposal, Canopi, aims to solve housing affordability issues by offering efficiently designed townhouses on small “inner-city” size blocks of around 175 square metres.
 
Canopi, at the end of Lae Street, will include 43 townhouses each including three bedrooms, two bathrooms, two car spots and a rear courtyard. Kingsford Property is marketing the townhouses, which range in price from $479,000 to $550,000.

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Victoria 

CBD Student Accommodation Development Site Fetches $18 Million

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PROMINENT property investor Michael Buxton has sold one of the city’s biggest student accommodation development sites for $18 million.
 
The 410 Elizabeth Street office building, which Mr Buxton bought off the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology five years ago for $8.25 million before obtaining a redevelopment permit, is expected to make way for a 50-level, 240-unit tower.
 
According to council reports, the new tower is expected to be delivered over the next three to five years.

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Proposed new tower
Victoria 

South Yarra’s Best Located Eyesore to be Replaced with $100 Million Tower

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Proposed new towerOutgoing 227 Toorak Road, South Yarra siteSOUTH Yarra’s best located eyesore may be demolished and replaced with a chic $100 million apartment tower – designed by the same architect that penned Melbourne’s distinctive Rectangular Stadium.
 
Little Project Developments has lodged a development application with the Stonnington City Council to build a 24-level, 350-unit apartment complex on the site of an ANZ data centre at 227 – 233 Toorak Road, near the busy Chapel Street intersection.
 
LPD paid ANZ about $33 million for the office in 2007, and was expected to incorporate the 1970s brick building into a new 32-level residential development, possibly adding a second tower to vacant land at the rear of the site.

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Victoria 

$778 Million Housing Estate Fast Tracked by Planning Minister, Bacchus Marsh

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PLANNING Minister Justin Madden has “fast tracked” a massive 141 hectare housing estate in Melbourne’s north-west outskirts.

The $778 million Riverside Estate, in Bacchus Marsh, has been proposed by former Victorian Football League player Stewart Gull and will include 1500 homes.

Being outside of metropolitan Melbourne, homes in the project are eligible for a taxpayer funded regional first-home buyers grant of $4,500 for supporting regional development.

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171 Collins Street
Victoria 

Macquarie to Sell Half Share Interest in 171 Collins Street Development to CBus

171 Collins Street proposalMACQUARIE Office Trust is believed to be selling a half share interest in a proposed $260 million office, in Collins Street’s “Paris end”, to CBus Property.
 
Sources say Macquarie will reap between $15 million and $20 million for a 50 per cent stake of the 171 Collins Street office proposal, which set a landmark planning precedent last July, by more than doubling the regulated height of a building in the “Swanston Street spine”.
 
Earlier this year, Macquarie lodged an application to add an 18th level to the proposed glass building, bringing the total lettable commercial and retail area to about 42,329 square metres. 

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Victoria 

Becton Sells Collins Street Office For $21 Million

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BECTON Investment Management has quietly offloaded a CBD building it purchased at the peak of the market two years ago.
 
The 446 Collins Street office building is speculated to have sold for about $21 million, reflecting an approximate 7.1 per cent yield, based on the building’s annual net income of about $1.5 million.
 
Allard & Shelton directors Patrick Barnes and Joseph Walton marketed the 11-storey, 5,543 square metre office, but declined to elaborate on a buyer or price. 

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Victoria 

Former Northcote Bingo Centre to be Redeveloped

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RECREATION spaces will make way for apartments in Northcote, again, with the suburb’s former Bingo Centre about to be redeveloped into a $25 million complex.
 
The Queensland-based owner of the property, Baycrown Pty Ltd, expects to start construction of the Home@Northcote development in January.
 
The former hall has been demolished and will make way for a 5-level complex including 55 units, seven home offices, ground floor retail and two levels of underground car parking. Century 21 is marketing the apartments which start at $294,950 with a car park.

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Victoria 

Gordon Bennett Work to be Displayed in Fitzroy North Apartment Tower

ARTIST Gordon Bennett has won a non-acquisitive art award, which will see his work displayed in the vaulted foyer of a major Fitzroy North apartment building for 12 months.
 
Mr Bennett’s piece “Coloured People #27” was selected by Heide Museum of Modern Art director and chief executive officer, Jason Smith in an award ceremony last Tuesday.
 
The Roi Art Prize was initiated by developers Phillip Maynes, Don Musto and Andrew Myer, grandson of Myer founder Sidney Myer, who will build the Bird de la Coeur designed Roi apartment tower at 648A Nicholson Street – where Mr Bennett’s piece will be displayed.

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Tullamore @ The Eastern
Victoria 

MAB Corp Frontrunner to Buy Doncaster’s Eastern Golf Course For $120 Million

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Tullamore @ The EasternMAB Corporation is believed to be the mystery buyer of Doncaster’s Eastern Golf Course site.
 
Well placed industry sources say the St Kilda Road-based privately owned developer is the frontrunner to buy the property, after offering to pay about $120 million to secure the 47-hectare site between the Eastern Freeway and Westfield Doncaster, about 15 kilometres east of town.
 
The 85-year old golf course, which includes native vegetation, indigenous trees and the historic Tullamore homestead, will be vacated in about 2013, when the Club relocates to an as-yet-undeveloped course abutting the Yering Gorge, in the Yarra Valley.
 
After that time, the new owner is expected to redevelop the Doncaster Road site into a $1 billion village of shops, offices and apartment towers. The majority of what is now a popular 18-hole golf course is expected to be subdivided into as many as 1,000 housing lots.

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Hamer Hall
Victoria 

Government Appoints Baulderstone to Undertake $128.5 Million Hamer Hall Renovation, Melbourne

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Hamer HallMAJOR Projects Minister Tim Pallas has appointed construction company Baulderstone to refurbish Melbourne’s Hamer Hall.
 
A total of $128.5 million will be spent on acoustics, new auditorium seating and staging systems, new connections to central Melbourne, St Kilda Road and the Yarra River, new foyer spaces and stairs, better disability access, escalators and lifts.
 
The redevelopment is a joint venture between Arts Victoria, the Arts Centre, Major Projects Victoria and architects Ashton Raggatt McDougall.

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Victoria 

Prominent Site Opposite Victoria Gardens, Richmond, to be Developed at Last

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SALTA Properties is looking to develop one of the several properties it owns around the busy corner of Victoria and Burnley streets, at the suburb border of Richmond and Abbotsford.
 
The Yarra City Council has granted Salta approval to build a $100 million apartment and townhouse project between 10 – 30 Burnley Street Richmond, and opposite the Burnley Street entrance of the Victoria Gardens Shopping Centre, which Salta owns with Centro Properties Group.
 
The aplacetolive.com.au development will include 355 apartments across a suite of individual buildings with distinct identities: Jade at 10 Burnley Street, Ruby at 20 Burnley Street, Ivory at 28 Burnley Street and Sienna at 30 Burnley Street. 

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Victoria 

Villa Maria Pays $8.75 Million For Camberwell Development Site

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NOT for profit organisation and retirement village specialist Villa Maria has paid $8.75 million for a 6,215 square metre Camberwell development site.
 
The 450 Camberwell Road property was sold with a permit for a 64-unit retirement village, capitalising on the site’s other street frontages to Athelstan Road, and Bowen Street, opposite the Camberwell Central Bowling Club.
 
Nichols Crowder director Matt Nichols sold the Camberwell property on behalf of the Macquarie affiliated Retirement Villages Group. Buildings on the site were once used by the Salvation Army. RVG recently sold a slice of the land to another aged care developer.

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Victoria 

Pratt Family’s Investment Vehicle to Redevelop California Hotel Site, Hawthorn, Into Aged Care Facility

THE development company of Melbourne’s wealthy Pratt family has won approval from the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to redevelop Hawthorn’s prominent California Hotel site, into a $42 million aged care facility.
 
Thorney Holdings, the Pratt family’s investment vehicle, will demolish buildings on the 138 Barkers Road site, opposite Xavier College’s Jackson Oval, and replace it with a 5-level, 85-unit facility with basement car parking.
 
The development will replace the 82-room California Hotel facility, which was built over the Barkly train station, which closed in 1957 according to council records. 

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Victoria 

Eaglemont Office Sells For $11.35 Million

THE suburban office opposite two billabongs, a pond, Yarra Flats and the Yarra River – has sold to a private investor for $11.35 million.
 
The modest single-level 3,216 square metre office at 677 The Boulevard, in Heidelberg’s ritzy pocket of Eaglemont, is leased to charity group Berry Street Victoria until 2018.
 
Based on the building’s current annual rent of $951,000, Colliers International selling agent Peter Bremner said the property sold on a yield of 8.38 per cent.

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Victoria 

Supermarket Built Into The Walls of Melbourne’s Former Bullring, Expected to Fetch $14 Million

THE supermarket and office complex built into the walls and roof of Fitzroy’s former Latino dance mecca, the Bullring, has quietly been listed for tender, and is expected to fetch about $14 million.
 
Icon Constructions redeveloped the former club into a major supermarket and office complex, with a 136-bay car park. Beller Commercial’s Fred Nucara is marketing the property with Vinci Carbone. Coles contributes to 73 per cent of the building’s annual $953,000 rent.

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Victoria 

Global Campus Management Administration Leaves Half a Docklands Office Building Vacant

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ALMOST half of an unfinished Docklands office building will be offered for lease, after education service provider Global Campus Management – which agreed to lease space at 717 Bourke Street to accommodate fashion university ESMOD – went into voluntary administration last Thursday.
 
ESMOD was to have occupied 18,000 square metres of the distinctive 37,000 square metre building which will also be home to petroleum giant BP upon completion in July next year.
 
GCM is a minority shareholder in the Bourke Street building, on the south-west corner of Wurundjeri Way, which was developed by Babcock & Brown and architect Metier 3.

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Victoria 

Wadhawan Group’s Construction Company, DEC, Arrives in Melbourne

VICTORIAN planning minister Justin Madden will exit a parliamentary sitting later this month to welcome Indian billionaire Rakesh Wadhawan’s property development business to Melbourne.
 
Mr Madden is one of several special guests confirmed to attend the lavish company launch at Crown Palladium on November 11, joining former sporting great Steve Waugh, who is rumoured to be attending, and members of the Victorian Bushrangers and New Zealand cricket teams, which Mr Wadhawan’s construction company, DEC, now sponsors.

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