This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
A CIRCA-1984 Melbourne CBD townhouse complex and its neighbour are on the market, with the owners deciding to offload the combined 352 sqm site a year after beginning to market a 24-storey, 35-apartment project.
The site, 490 Flinders Street and 1-9 Highlander Lane, is expected to sell for $12 million.
The townhouse complex is known as Highlander Mews, and has five three-storey townhouses. It looked set to make way for the permitted project, with approval allowing a gross building area of 6,673 sqm, with a Metier3-designed luxury residential outcome for 35 full and half floor apartments, with an average internal area of 142 sqm.
The vendors are a joint venture between Metier3 architect Andrew Norbury and Singapore’s Havenport Investments. They have appointed Colliers agents Matt Stagg, Nick Garoni, Jozef Dickinson and Aaron Choong to conduct the expressions of interest campaign, which closes Thursday, 20th June.
“The permitted project is well advanced, offering an approved building envelope, positioned to capitalise on the premium view lines over that Yarra River and the high-end amenity stemming from the Rialto precinct – 75 metres away,” Stagg said.
Just a few metres from King Street, the property is in a 24-hour precinct supported by a strong office and employment crowd by day, and bars, clubs and eateries at night, and an increasing permanent residential population.
The site is also close to Crown Casino and Southbank Promenade, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, and Marvel Stadium.
Local and offshore build-to-sell developers to compete for the site, with population growth estimates showing Melbourne to have the largest forecast migration of all the capital cities in Australia in the next 10 years. Dickinson said Melbourne’s CBD development sites are attracting a far more diverse buyer profile, as well as build-to-sell encapsulating build-to-rent, co-living, purpose-built student accommodation.,
Dickinson anticipates the site to attract significant institutional capital from the living sectors with the “stabilisation” of the Mirvac’s LIV Munro build-to-rent asset next Queen Victoria Market providing “proof of concept” in this sector, coupled with the emergence of sub-sectors such as co-living .
The site could also be pivoted to commercial outcomes, including hospitality, occupation, or retail use.
