This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
EXCLUSIVE: PLANS for a $600 million health and biomedical hub – linked with the former chair of the collapsed Melbourne Rebels – next to a new Melbourne Metro tunnel station appear to have been shelved in favour of a proposal for a 57-storey tower with more than 600 homes, as the Arden precinct’s identity crisis deepens.
A planning amendment proposal has gone live for the 5,463 sqm site at 189-203 Arden Street in North Melbourne, which was acquired by the real estate arm of BRC Capital two years ago ahead of a major growth curve for the city fringe locale. The City of Melbourne and the Victorian government anticipate 20,000 residents and 34,000 jobs in the precinct by 2051, centred around the brand-new major Metro Tunnel station which will open next year.
ASX-listed Charter Hall had been in due diligence to acquire the site from luxury car dealer Nick Theodossi, who had previously tipped the site as well as the 185 Arden Street site to the market in 2019, creating a 1.5-hectare parcel, with reported expectations of around $150 million-plus.
Arden was envisaged as a major health and biomedical precinct, but redrawing plans for a health hub at the Arden Street site marks another shift in its identity. The Victorian government earlier this year scrapped its $5 billion plans to build new campuses of the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Royal Women’s Hospital around the new station, leaving Arden without two major drawcards. Touted by the Victorian government as the biggest hospital project in Australia’s history, the campuses were announced ahead of the 2022 state election, but were scrapped due to “electromagnetic interference” from the Metro Tunnel to hospital equipment.
BRC Capital was founded by Paul Docherty, who was chairman of Super Rugby Pacific team Melbourne Rebels – with BRC Capital its major sponsor – when the company ran into financial trouble last summer with debts of more than $50 million. That ultimately saw Rugby Australia shut down the Rebels, which itself had debts of more than $20 million, and over the course of 2024 several of Docherty’s businesses were either put into liquidation or made subject to winding up orders.
Documents obtained from ASIC show that one of those, BRC Management Services, is now Arden Development Services, the permit applicant of the new plans for the Arden Street site. Docherty is listed as director. PKF’s Paul Allen was appointed to oversee BRC Management Services when it was put into liquidation in August.
Urbis has been engaged by Arden Development Services to undertake the planning scheme amendment to facilitate the construction of what the plans dub “Arden Village”. The amendment is for the construction of the soaring mixed-use building comprising 609 dwellings, 6,772 sqm of office space and 2,278 sqm of retail space, above a three-basement level.
The “transit-orientated, mixed-use project” will also have 116 car parking spaces and 738 bicycle spaces, with public realm improvements to each street interface and a single vehicle crossover to the Arden Street frontage.
The project’s lead developers are KordaMentha Real Estate and Goldhill Junction Pty Ltd.
At the end of October, the state government’s Development Victoria announced four consortiums headed by Australian Unity; Gurner and MAB Corporation; Hamton Group; and Lendlease and Assemble respectively as the shortlisted bidders to develop Arden Central on government-owned land in the precinct.
Around the same time, Accord Property Group hung up the “for sale” sign at 88 Laurens Street, with a price guide of over $100 million for the first commercial office development located within the much-anticipated urban renewal project.
