Crown and Meriton in multi-million-dollar deals
Crown Resorts looks set to pay $80 million for a development site on which it once planned to build Australia’s tallest tower.
The property group already owns a half share in the Southbank One Queensbridge site opposite Crown’s Melbourne casino and will buy out developer Schiavello Group’s remaining 50 percent stake.
Controversial plans to build a $1.75 billion hotel and apartment complex, slated to be Australia’s tallest building at 323 metres, were shelved in March after the Victorian government refused to extend a development permit for the site.
The proposal from Crown Resorts and the Schiavello Group involved 388 hotel rooms and 708 apartments in a 90-storey building reaching 323 metres – outstripping Australia’s tallest building, Q1 at Surfers Paradise.
Crown was granted approval in 2017 for 388 hotel rooms and 708 apartments in a 90-metre tower which exceeded Victorian planning limits, state premier Daniel Andrews arguing the development was of “state significance”.
But the project failed to attract financial backing in the climate of a declining luxury unit market, a softening of room rates driven by new hotel openings, a lending clampdown by banks and a decline in Chinese buyer interest.
The casino group is now reportedly looking at new hotel plans it says will deliver “significant economic and tourism benefits to Victoria”.
The $80 million buyout will also include all pre-development assets, including intellectual property and designs for the project.
Meriton’s Mascot
Harry Triguboff’s Meriton group has bought a $25 million development site with approval for 110 apartments in Mascot – it’s eighth build in the Sydney airport suburb since 2015.
Meriton, which describes itself as the dominant developer in the city’s inner south, is close to completion on the 111-apartment Escada development in Haran Street. Two 13-storey buildings comprising 305 apartments at 256 Coward Street are also under construction and due for completion in 2020.
The group, owned by Australia’s richest accom developer, has announced a series of acquisitions and builds in recent weeks, pushing into states outside of QLD and NSW for the first time in its 56-year history.
The Gardeners Road site represents a return to business as usual – and has been described by Triguboff as a “restock of the site cupboard”.
“We’ve done an immense amount of development at Mascot in the past four or five years – the suburb’s become not only a Meriton favourite but a favourite with buyers,” The Urban Developer reports him saying.
“So much so that we don’t have a lot to offer buyers.”
The new 3605sqm Mascot Gardner site is currently home to warehouses and office buildings.
AccomNews is not affiliated with any government agency, body or political party. We are an independently owned, family-operated magazine.