Plans for $1bn Fisherman’s Bend Towers Rejected

John Ayre’s Cojas Holdings and Gary Brill’s Belsize Nominees’s latest plans for a residential tower in Fishermans Bend have been refused by the Victorian government.

The Artisan Architect-designed plans for 351-387 Ingles Street in the Lorimer Precinct of Fishermans Bend were submitted for referral to the state planning minister in September, 2021. 

The City of Melbourne council confirmed that it did not support the plans and that a notice of refusal was issued by Victoria’s department of planning on October 5, 2021. 

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning said that the proposal was refused because it did not meet Clause 45.11 of Melbourne Planning Scheme, prohibiting the granting of a permit before an infrastructure contributions plan has been incorporated into the scheme. 

According to BCI data, the project was a joint venture between Cojas and Belsize with an estimated cost of $300 million and comprising 1994 units across five towers ranging from five to 34 storeys. 

The plans included 2445sq m of retail space and 11,945sq m of commercial space. 

Winemaker Gregory Kefford was also previously a director of Belsize Nominees with Kefford, Brill and Ayre forming a consortium to develop the site. Their first proposal was a $1-billion, 2300-unit project across six towers in 2013. 

Fishermans Bend was announced as a site of urban renewal and rezoned as part of the CBD in a surprise announcement in July, 2012 by the then Victorian planning minister Matthew Guy. 

The move sent property prices in the area soaring, with many landowners receiving windfall profits from the sudden increase—as much as 500 per cent—in land value.

Guy also put a call out for applications for development before planning controls, or a scheme or height restrictions were put in place, prompting a flood of applications from landholders and developers. 

▲ The then planning minister Matthew Guy rezoned a massive 250ha of low-rise industrial land in South Melbourne and Port Melbourne in 2012.

Guy went on to become the leader of the Victorian Liberal Party before Michael O’Brien took control in 2018. He was then elected unopposed as leader again in 2021. 

John Ayre was named as a Liberal Party donor, having donated $25,000 to the party through a company he was shareholder in, ULR Automotive, in 2013-14, and $13,500 personally in 2013. 

It was also revealed that John Ayre’s consortium bought the land at 351 Ingles Street for $1.5 million in the 1990s. The consortium also owned a second site at 150 Turner Street. The sites were valued at a combined $80 million in 2017. 

The Urban Developer does not suggest any wrongdoing on the part of John Ayre or any other landholders. 

The first version of the tower project plans included developments on both sides in one proposal before later designs split them into two projects.

A residential tower project at the second site 150-160 Turner Street was put before the City of Melbourne council for referral to the planning minister. 

The council informed the planning minister that they did not support the project in October 2015 but the department issued a permit for the project in September 2016. 

Since then there has been no development activity on the site ,which was listed as sold for $8 million in May, 2019.