This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
A LOCAL family is hoping for a $30 million windfall from the sale of a 1.4 hectare warehouse site in Melbourne’s Fishermans Bend precinct, designated for large scale urban renewal.
Prominent local and international groups and developers are expected to show interest in the 525 Graham Street property in Port Melbourne, with the site suitable for a range of outcomes and subject to planning controls that allow for significant height and density to be achieved.
Located within the Wirraway precinct and featuring over 76 metres of street frontage to Graham Street, the property has been the longstanding base of Frank Walker’s National Tiles and offers holding income of $410,000 including GST plus outgoings.
The Fishermans Bend Framework predicts that the precinct will support 80,000 new residents and 80,000 new jobs, with the population expected to grow by 1,500% in the coming 20 years across the 250 hectare precinct.
Savills agents Julian Heatherich, Benson Zhou and Clinton Baxter have been appointed to handle the sale.
The recent Victorian government Budget featuring a $179.4 million investment into the Fishermans Bend employment precinct. Major investment by the government will be underpinned by the transformation of General Motors Holden’s former headquarters into a science, engineering and tech employment hub supporting over 30,000 new jobs.
The property adjoins Goodman Group’s 10,000 sqm retail project which features a full-line Woolworths supermarket and Dan Murphys that are set to open in the coming weeks. On the opposite corner of Plummer Street, the Fisherman’s Bend Secondary School is almost complete ready for the first round of enrolments in 2022.
An escalation in development activity is likely in the coming years after some challenges since the precinct’s controversial initial rezoning in 2012 by then-planning minister Matthew Guy, which delivered windfall profits overnight for a number of landowners, before Labor took power in the state and sought to introduce controls across the area amid concerns of high intensity development without infrastructure in place.
Goodman’s warehouse conversion was one of 26 projects that were called-in and put on hold by Labor planning minister Richard Wynne in 2018 so they could be considered under revised measures.
Prolific developer Tim Gurner last year secured approval from the government for a $1 billion triple-tower project in the area with residential and office space.
“With the Fisherman Bend Infrastructure Contributions Plan set to be finalised in the near future, we’re forecasting a real boost in development in Fisherman’s Bend, particularly considering the current strength of the residential market, and the unrelenting demand for the city fringe,” Heatherich said.
“The delivery of key amenity and infrastructure on the neighbouring sites unlocks the potential for quick development of the site.”
