Besen, Neometro File St Kilda Residential Project Plans

Daniel Besen’s Besen Group and Besen Family Office have joined forces with Neometro for an apartment project in St Kilda East.

Neometro has filed the plans with the City of Port Phillip Council for the project on a 5003sq m site at 97 Alma Road.

Kerstin Thompson Architects’ plans for the four-storey project comprise 41 apartments and 21 townhouses. 

Proposed are six one-bedroom apartments, 20 two bedroom and 15 three bedroom as well as 88 car parking spaces, 80 bicycle storage spaces and 5 motorcycle parking spaces. 

A small 64sq m food and beverage tenancy on the ground floor with a basement level below for car parking is also part of the proposal.

The townhouses would occupy one side of the site in three blocks while the apartments would be in one four-storey building. 

Alma Park is opposite the site, which currently has an existing two-storey building on it, home to a Fitness First centre and the St Kilda Sports and Fitness Centre Reserve at the rear end of the narrow, rectangular lot.

Fitness First has a lease on the building that expires in 2024.

▲ A render of another of Daniel Besen’s developments, 1 Spring Street.

Neometro entered into a purchaser’s contract with Newheaven Pty Ltd in 2021, according to the title deed supplied with the application.

The developer announced in March, 2022 that it had bought the site for $21.8 million and it was settled before Christmas that year.

Newheaven’s directors and shareholders are Mark Geoffrey Riddell and Michael Douglas Thornborrow, according to ASIC records. 

Council records show an estimated cost of $29.7 million for the project.

ASIC records reveal that the applicant, Alma Road Developer Pty Ltd, has Jeffery David Provan, James Peter Tutton, Jay Benjamin Doherty, Duncan Leith Murray, Lochlan Ison Sinclair and Simeon Goldenberg listed as directors.

Shares in the company are held equally between Besen Alma Road Developer Pty Ltd and Neometro Alma Road Developer Pty Ltd. 

Provan originally founded Neometro in 1985 while Tutton currently head up the company as director.

Murray is currently the chief executive of the Besen Family Office and a director of Arcus Partners. He was also previously the chair of AusCycling and Cycling Australia.

The Besen Family Office provided financial backing for Daniel Hong to found Arcus Partners with Daniel Besen taking the director’s position.

Doherty is the chief financial officer at Besen Group while Sinclair is development director at Neometro. Goldenberg is executive director at Besen Family Office.

The Urban Developer contacted Neometro for comment.

Daniel Besen founded Besen in 2000 to focus on property development. The Besen family owns major clothing brands including Suzanne Grae.  Mark Besen and the family are listed at 56 on the most recent Rich List with an estimated net wealth of $2.23 billion.

Daniel Besen’s most recent project is the controversial Spring Street tower in the Melbourne CBD.

Neometro has worked on other residential projects in St Kilda but its most recent residential projects have been around the Jewell Station and railway line in Melbourne’s Brunswick.