This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
EXCLUSIVE: Australian developer 3L Alliance is the new owner of the coveted Kinnear’s Precinct mixed-use inner city Melbourne project having paid about $40 million for the site, Australian Property Journal can reveal.
- What Melbourne developer 3L Alliance has purchased the mixed-use site Kinnear’s Precinct from R&F Property Australia, an offshoot of China’s R&F Properties
- Why The site was put up for sale in August 2024, as R&F’s troubles in China mounted amid a property crisis
- What next 3L Alliance will take on a historic masterplan development with over 1200 dwellings
The sale came under the $60 million that R&F Property Australia paid for the site alone in 2016.
Having obtained approval for an approved mixed-use development plan for the home of the heritage-listed Kinnear’s Ropeworks, R&F was poised to unveil a $750 million conservation and adaptive re-use of the 3-hectare site that is home to the heritage-listed Kinnear’s Ropeworks.
It had already completed stage one of the project of about 200 apartments in 2019, with roughly four stages left to develop.
The listing of the project comes as the Australian development market takes a hit from rising construction costs and higher interest rates and as R&F’s beleaguered owner R&F Properties faces a property downturn in China.
Guangzhou’s R&F Properties has struggled with a liquidity crisis and has been selling assets to meet its debt repayments.
It also sold another major 1.68-hectare block in Brisbane’s West End at Donkin and Buchanan Streets at a discount last year and pulled the plug on another major mixed-use masterplan project “Central Gardens” in Queensland’s Springfield in 2022.
At the Kinnear’s Precinct project at 124-180 Ballarat Road in Footscray, Paul Lin’s 3L Alliance will now have the opportunity to finish off the remaining 1200 apartments and other commercial and retail offerings.
The developer stamped its name in the Melbourne development sector with the completion of Queens Place, a major mixed use project in the Melbourne CBD.
Australian Property Journal reached out to the 3L Alliance for comment.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Joe Kairouz, Hamish Burgess and Leon Ma brokered the deal, fielding interests from both local and international developers.
“The site’s significant scale, mixed-use zoning, approved staged development plan, and proximity to major employment hubs and lifestyle amenities attracted widespread interest, with a locally based developer ultimately securing the site under highly competitive terms,” Kairouz said.
The site is one of the Victorian government’s seven priority precincts as demand for housing in Australia continues unabated amid a shortage in supply.
