Paul Little teams with property owner to redevelop prime Melbourne site – again
What do you do when you’re a new and thriving property developer unimpressed with the selection of Melbourne building blocks on the market?
If you’re also one of Australia’s most successful businessmen – approach the owner of a site you fancy and simply ask them if they’d like to joint-venture a redevelopment.
Toll Holdings managing director turned builder, Paul Little, has teamed with Greatorex – the owner of historic buildings (pictured, top) in one of Melbourne’s quaintest pockets – with plans to rebuild the site as a medium-rise apartment building.
The businessman’s Little Projects is seeking to replace 17-22 Grattan Street, opposite the Grattan Gardens, in Prahran, with a seven-storey building, set to contain 55 dwellings.
The proposed Plus Architecture designed project will also offer 62 car spaces.
If approved, the site could make way for a complex with 19 single bedroom units. Thirty of the flats will be configured with two bedrooms. The rest will include three bedrooms.
“Designed to be sensitive to the adjoining park, Plus Architecture’s response also features a sloping façade to Grattan Street. This prevents any overshadowing of Grattan Gardens and creates a visual spectacle that can be appreciated by locals and residents alike,” the developer said.
The site is about a hundred metres from Commercial Road which is also the suburb border to South Yarra. The Prahran Market, which is confusingly in South Yarra, is as this intersection. The Prahran train station and Chapel Street retail strip are a short walk away.
It is not the first time the South Yarra-based Little Projects has proposed a residential development on a site which was not previously offered for public sale. In 2014, Mr Little negotiated with Freemasons Victoria to build townhouses on a prime Box Hill property – with both groups then sharing in the profit proceeds.
In May it was reported Little Projects had snared Hyatt Centric as the occupant of a proposed 30-storey, 278-suite hotel at 9-27 Downie Street in the Melbourne CBD – a parcel Mr Little bought permit-ready, for $28.6 million, last year.
Two weeks ago realestatesource.com.au reported Hyatt Centric had leased another unbuilt hotel – set to rise 10 storeys at 2-10 River Street, South Yarra – being developed by Alfasi Property Group.
