It will never leave: the Pratt family’s California Hotel. Photo: Stephen McKenzie
ONE of regional Victoria’s biggest urban renewals – the $300 million Fyansford Green project in Geelong – has quietly been listed for sale, seven months after the division of the Perth-based developer that controlled the site went into receivership.
Fyansford Green was set to replace the former Geelong Cement Works and Fyansford quarry sites, five kilometres west of the Geelong city centre, with a new village including retail and offices areas, 2000 dwellings and an 11-hectare town centre.
A development master plan was first discussed in 2001 by the City of Greater Geelong council and the owner, interests associated with the Moltoni Group. The Moorabool River will slice through the proposed development in Fyansford, abutting Herne Hill.
Pakenham Racing Club is moving to Tynong.
The 115.4 hectare site, part of which is reportedly contaminated, was rezoned for redevelopment in 2008. It abuts the Geelong Ring Road, which gets commuters to the Melbourne CBD in about an hour. Geelong is near Avalon Airport, controlled by billionaire businessman Lindsay Fox.
Knight Frank’s Michael Hede and Neville Richards are marketing the Fyansford sites in two lots, or as a whole, where it is expected to fetch about $25 million.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, plans for a new ”satellite city” were announced for Caloundra South, about 80 kilometres north of Brisbane. The $3.3 billion master-planned town, set to be developed over the next 20 years, will house 50,000 people in about 20,000 dwellings and include about 650,000 square metres of commercial space.
Pratts told to clean up
ESTABLISHMENT family the Pratts have been warned they will face fines if properties like their California Hotel development site continue to blight the otherwise ritzy leafy east.
Part-controlled by Australia’s seventh richest person, Anthony Pratt, the disused facility at 138 Barkers Road, Hawthorn, has been looking for a new buyer for about a year. The site has been identified by the City of Boroondara council as a haven for squatters and vandals. What were fully furnished motel suites have been looted since the hotel closed in 2008. Graffiti is now painted over the walls of the low-rise motel, opposite exclusive Xavier College.
Council laws announced last month allow for fines of several thousand dollars for owners who don’t maintain clean assets. It said many locals have complained about the dilapidated hotel which the Pratts’ investment vehicle, Thorney Holdings, bought for $13.4 million at the peak of the last property boom, in late 2007.
After obtaining a permit to replace the low-rise hotel with a five-level, 87 unit apartment village, Thorney listed the site for sale in June 2011 with price expectations of about $15 million.
According to a 2012 Forbes list, Anthony Pratt, who succeeded businesses from his father, Visy Board founder Richard Pratt, has a net worth of about $3.4 billion. A chunk of the family’s revenue is from property interests.
Housing near Newport
THE public housing building boom agents, developers and planners say is under way throughout Victoria has reached Altona North.
This week the Hobsons Bay council rezoned a prominent site at 231-237 Mason Street – near the Newport border – to allow for the construction of a three-level social housing block with 44 flats. The site, formerly a coal briquette storage facility operated by the former State Electricity Commission, is about 10 kilometres south-west of the CBD.
Equiset sells market
LOCAL developer Equiset has made $2.3 million from the sale of a strata-titled supermarket at the ground floor of a 246-unit North Melbourne apartment complex, which replaced the popular Red Back Brewery pub.
A private investor purchased the Flemington Road asset from Equiset and joint venture partner Everbright Group on a yield of 7.3 per cent. Fitzroys agent Mark Talbot was the selling agent.
The Red Back was once co-owned by former North Melbourne footballer Wayne Carey and was the scene of an incident in March 2000 when a pane of glass fell from a second level window to gash the mouth, cheek and neck of former teammate Anthony Stevens, who was standing on the footpath below.
DHS out, Red Cross in
THE Red Cross has leased 1000 square metres of office space on the top floor of a Dandenong block for years occupied by the Department of Human Services.
Struck two months after the government vacated, the Red Cross is believed to be paying rent of about $230 to $250 per square metre per year to occupy space at 311 Lonsdale Street, owned by Arena Funds Management.
Jones Lang LaSalle director of suburban leasing Michael Simonds is filling the space vacated by DHS, which moved to the 14,400 square metre Government Services Offices building nearby.
Property with sole
AHEAD of opening a grand Port Melbourne store within a historic bluestone building, the Mance family, antecedents of whom established the footwear brand Windsor Smith in 1946, are value-adding some outgoing northern suburb sites.
In Preston, nine kilometres north of town, the company will sell its long-time headquarters at 161-195 High Street, in what may be a $5 million deal.
Currently configured with an office, warehouse and retail outlet, the asset is for sale with a permit for a seven-level apartment complex with 128 flats.
Closer to town, in Northcote, the family is selling what may also be a residential development site at 209 St Georges Road.
The 2341 sq m block with four street frontages includes a double-storey, 3813 sq m office and 31 car park bays.
Identified by its ”Windsor Smith Plant 2” white sign, the Northcote site is also expected to fetch about $5 million.
Like the Preston asset, it is being offered with a leaseback to Windsor Smith.
In 2010 Windsor Smith paid a reported $6 million for a prominent Bay Street, Port Melbourne building, for years the headquarters of advertising rag The Trading Post.
Windsor Smith is expected to redevelop the site as a major showroom. It has leased another part of the building to a gym user.
Jones Lang LaSalle’s Dominic Gibson and Steven Messina are marketing the Preston and Northcote sites for Greg Mance, also a well known horse racing identity and thoroughbred trainer.
Mr Mance owned the 1989 Caulfield Cup winner Cole Diesel.
Pakenham scouts out
THE historic Pakenham Scout Hall has discovered progress looks a lot like a demolition ball.
The James Street property – which serviced the former rural community since 1937 – is expected to be sold and demolished to allow for the construction of a high density commercial or residential project.
Owner The Boy Scouts Association Victorian Branch has watched the site’s value balloon since the 1990s as a wave of new housing estates were developed in and around the suburb, 56 kilometres south-east of the CBD.
The site, with a distinguished cabin-style building, is at the edge of the town’s business district.
The Cardinia Shire Council confirmed it is working to find the Scouts another home.
The Pakenham racecourse site, not far from the Scout Hall, is earmarked to be replaced with a $500 million mixed use village with apartments, offices and retail spaces.
The Pakenham Racing Club struggled selling the site in the recent economic downturn. It plans to relocate to a new track at Tynong, 16 kilometres east of Pakenham.