This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
BRC Capital has pounced on a 5,463 sqm parcel within a major urban renewal precinct in Melbourne’s inner north, with plans to deliver a $600 million mixed-use project in sync with the area’s future health and science focus.
The site, at 189-203 Arden Street, is in the circa 50-hectare industrial Arden precinct that will be transformed around the soon-to-be-delivered Arden train station as part of the $11 billion Metro Tunnel project. ahead of this month’s state election, the Victorian government has also pledged to build two new hospital towers close to the site and the station, which will be campuses of the nearby Royal Melbourne and Royal Women’s hospitals.
BRC Developments is the real estate arm of investment house BRC Capital and is making its first entry into the property market. BRC Capital has a focus on medical technology and health and personal care products. It is reportedly looking to bring its personalised medical devices company 3DMediTech to the site Arden site, as well as a joint research and training centre established with the University of Melbourne that is currently housed between 3DMediTech’s site at Port Melbourne and the University’s Parkville campus.
“We are trying to take more control of our destiny in regards to the facilities that we build, which are, by definition, reasonably expensive,” BRC founder and chairman Paul Docherty added.
“We’ve got to be somewhere where, from a health perspective, we’re close to where health workers are going to be, and that is clearly in and around that area,”
The Victorian government anticipates the Arden Central precinct will accommodate 15,000 residents, with 34,000 people working in the area by 2050. Arden Station will be a two-minute train journey to the Parkville university medical and research precinct, and from 2029, the planned Melbourne Airport Rail will stop at Arden.
“The Arden Central precinct will become a key destination for Victoria and an integral employment, education, medical and innovation precinct,” said Colliers agent Trent Hobart, who negotiated the off-market deal with colleague Robert Papaleo.
ASX-listed Charter Hall had previously been in due diligence on the site, which had luxury car dealer Nick Theodossi on the sell side. Theodossi 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.
“We have been in business in this precinct for 52 years and have every intention of staying in the precinct in our current Nick Theodossi Prestige Cars showroom for the long-term,” Nick Theodoossi said of the 185 Arden Street showroom site, located on the opposite side of Laurens Street.
Arden adjoins the Macaulay precinct, which the Victorian government has also earmarked for a transformation from industrial to mixed-use in the coming years. The combined area has already attracted multiple build-to-projects, with US company Greystar having just bought a Kensington site with plans for a $350 million development, and US compatriots Hines as well as Local and Macquarie and Assemble Communities also planning projects nearby.
The activity has also encouraged landowners to tip their properties to the market. Pace Development has offered a 1.32-hectare site with expectations of upwards of $45 million, while a local family offered 7,811 sqm of land for sale after receiving offers of $50 million.
