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Scott Hutchinson has just returned to Australia from Burning Man—the annual event that brings tens of thousands of people to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert for a week of “community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance”.Hutchinson first flew to the week-long desert festival in 2010.&nbsp;&nbsp;He hasn’t missed one since.“Yeah, mate, it’s just my thing. I love it,” he said. “This year was too good to be true … don’t believe all that other stuff.”The “other stuff” to which he refers was the almost 13mm of rain which fell on the impromptu desert city in what is normally the driest of the United States.&nbsp;While thousands reportedly got stuck in mud as they tried to leave, like Hutchinson, most saw it as part of the experience. And in any case, as chairman of Queensland’s biggest building company, privately owned Hutchinson Builders, he is used to watching weather forecasts.And was pleased to learn upon his return that Australia, and particularly the eastern seaboard, is officially in for a long, hot summer.The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) had finally declared an El Nino event—one of two climate patterns that generally determine whether Australia will have a hot or a wet summer, and whether there’s more risk of bushfires, floods and droughts.El Nino, according to the BoM, is part of a natural cycle known as the El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is associated with many months of sustained warming.Other than a shift in temperature extremes, El Nino brings less rain, an increased risk of frost, less tropical cyclones, decreased alpine snow depths, and an increased fire danger in south-east Australia.Gloomy as that prediction is, Hutchinson welcomes it—in February this year he called for just that.“We need a recession and a drought and things will get back to normal … and I reckon we might get both,” he told&nbsp; <a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/scott-hutchinson-builders-formworkers-2023-predictions" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/scott-hutchinson-builders-formworkers-2023-predictions">The Urban Developer’s Phil Bartsch.</a><div id="3JkZvINeTDaB99fU2dLlRB"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/3rEB5u6Q4rVabGVJAiHn5B/4aa173ca6e615433a456a974f84d6fc8/1.jpg" alt="null" data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/3rEB5u6Q4rVabGVJAiHn5B/4aa173ca6e615433a456a974f84d6fc8/1.jpg"></picture><div>▲ The rain of La Nina had a greater impact than Covid, says Scott Hutchinson. </div></div>At that time he and other builders had just come out of the other ENSO weather event—La Nina—which brings cooler temperatures, more tropical cyclones and increased rainfall.“The rain in La Nina was actually worse than Covid,” says Hutchinson. “It was just crippling, we could never get a swing along. It was just horrible.”In fact, quantity surveyor Matt Hemming, of Mitchell Brandtman says he recalls one project where they lost 100 days due to La Nina’s wet weather.“That’s something that really impacted the market through the Covid delay times,” he said.&nbsp;&nbsp;“When we were going through all those issues and material price rises, to then get the weather delays … when a builder gets only time and no cost for that, so that’s a huge impact.“If they’re forecasting less rain in the foreseeable future, well, that can’t be a bad thing from a build point of view, but it obviously creates a lot of problems elsewhere.”One of those problems will be rising temperatures.Under Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBAs) struck by the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) its 100,000-plus members will stop work and leave a site when the temperature reaches 35C.In Queensland and the Northern Territory, construction workers can also leave a site if the temperature reaches 29C alongside humidity of 75 per cent.The CFMEU says the temperature should be measured at the BoM weather station nearest the work site.Barry Laycock, a director with cost management and quantity surveyors Slattery, says El Nino should improve productivity, as long as “we don't go over the CFMEU’s threshold for being heated off.”<div id="svVySMkbMb4htMGZF5r3i"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/4ezGiytRLhemvTEGqlE6CD/91efc91fbeb74507399908ce249b999d/3.jpg" alt="null" data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/4ezGiytRLhemvTEGqlE6CD/91efc91fbeb74507399908ce249b999d/3.jpg"></picture><div>▲ Slattery director Barry Laycock says dry weather is no bad thing. </div></div>“In theory you won't get as many lost days from wet weather,” Laycock says.“So as long as it stays below that threshold, but we get dry weather, then it should assist builders’ program.”Hutchinson agrees.While as chairman he no longer runs the company, the challenges of the past 30 months have meant he continues to work five days a week.&nbsp;&nbsp;And back from Burning Man, he’s been touring the company’s building sites.He reminded his staff El Nino was back, and dry weather was in their future. They reminded him he’d now have to watch the temperature.&nbsp;“The problem is, of course, it’s hard to get them back to work once you’ve stopped them, and we’ve got so much work at the moment, it’s crazy.“All our subcontractors have gone broke, so we’ve gone down into the trades doing them.”<h2>Homeowner warranty insurance skyrockets</h2>Insolvencies in the sector, for whatever reason, are creating their own problems.CoreLogic construction cost estimation manager John Bennett has watched the cost of homeowners’ warranty insurance policies—the type that protect consumers against a builder failing to complete a job—rise by up 40 per cent in the past 12 months.“It’s my opinion, what’s happened is because we’ve seen a lot of builders go under in the past six months, 12 months, etc, those flow-on costs will be hitting the insurance companies about now, and they’re setting themselves up for the next 12 months,” he said.This July was the world’s hottest month on record with wildfires raging throughout southern Europe and temperatures soaring globally, prompting UN secretary general António Guterres to declare: “The era of global warming has ended and the era of global boiling has arrived.”<div id="1DWwVdxkRRtaWf5zH5WEim"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/lflnBVyqPZgaVZgwlYu54/01d95c2d536deb56b070fdb3cd62c0f7/4.jpg" alt="null" data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/lflnBVyqPZgaVZgwlYu54/01d95c2d536deb56b070fdb3cd62c0f7/4.jpg"></picture><div>▲ Resilient Building Council chief executive Kate Cotter. </div></div>The Urban Land Institute (ULI)—a global organisation of 44,000 real estate and urban development professionals—says the modern built environment is a clear contributor to extreme heat.But in a report titled&nbsp;<a href="https://knowledge.uli.org/en/reports/research-reports/2019/scorched-extreme-heat-and-real-estate-in-asia-pacific-en" data-mce-href="https://knowledge.uli.org/en/reports/research-reports/2019/scorched-extreme-heat-and-real-estate-in-asia-pacific-en">Scorched: Extreme Heat and Real Estate in Asia Pacific</a>, ULI argues the sector can also be part of the solution, particularly in cities where there are opportunities to adopt mitigation strategies that directly reduce temperatures.Resilient Building Council chief executive Kate Cotter agrees, saying there is the potential to help improve&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/bushfires-climate-change-cities-planning" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/bushfires-climate-change-cities-planning">the resilience of our communities</a>—and save lives and properties.“Australia is exposed to increasing extreme weather and disasters, yet less than 10 per cent of our houses are resilient to local risk,” Cotter told&nbsp;The Urban Developer.“The reality is we need to build better, and we can.”&nbsp;For now, Australia’s construction industry is looking forward to drier conditions, with Hutchinson warning it will mean construction times are likely to tighten.“At the moment because we’re all used to wet weather, and also post Covid and the boom, construction times have all blown out. But clients and everybody else understands that.“As soon it’s dry, and after about 12 months of everybody expecting it to be dry, you’ll find clients will demand tighter build times.“But that’s human nature and has nothing to do with El Nino.”<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-align: start;" data-mce-style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-align: start;"> <hr> You are currently experiencing The Urban Developer Plus (TUD+), our premium membership for property professionals. <a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/membership-plans" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/membership-plans">Click here to learn more.</a><div id="2GhuueZl01Zwo2aFfjNVi2"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/12UMq5eMSEOh0QxJVBYaDt/d7507cf4ceb1365cc9ce7eaff84d06cc/tud___banner.jpg" alt="TUD + Banner" data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/12UMq5eMSEOh0QxJVBYaDt/d7507cf4ceb1365cc9ce7eaff84d06cc/tud___banner.jpg"></picture></div>

After epic rain delays to construction last summer, the industry says the big dry may be what it needs, but not everyone agrees…

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Twenty years after he first acquired it, a Sydney businessman is selling a rare 8000-square-metre-plus office site on the banks of the Yarra River in Melbourne’s popular inner-eastern fringe.Industry commentators say the island site at Cremorne—with four street frontages and commanding views of the Melbourne cityscape—will fetch $80 million to $100 million.The former textiles warehouse, which sits on 8320sq m at 167-169 Cremorne Street, houses ASX-listed essential services providers Ventia.An international expressions-of-interest campaign is being handled by global commercial real estate and investment managers JLL, who described Cremorne as “the country’s most proven development precinct”.Head of capital markets Josh Rutman told The Urban Developer&nbsp;it was rare to see a site of this size come to market in that neighbourhood.“Most of the sites in Cremorne are around 500 to 1000 square metres,” he said. “This is at least eight times the size, and there’s very, very few that have traded over 5000sq m in the past couple of decades.“It’s got four street frontages, it’s got scale, so it allows you to do a number of different development outcomes, it’s got an existing building on it which is still of very good quality and it’s generating income from an ASX-listed tenant.”<div id="6SR1cfnXfSNCfE1EIByJvp"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/4o3A5z1qvJD5lwF3QnluJy/8202892f5bdf86f0e647546fb58f48b0/Cremorne_Sale_Mid__800x500_.jpg" alt="an aerial photo of the former textiles warehouse, which sits on 8320sq m and has street frontages on all four sides." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/4o3A5z1qvJD5lwF3QnluJy/8202892f5bdf86f0e647546fb58f48b0/Cremorne_Sale_Mid__800x500_.jpg"></picture><div>▲ The former textiles warehouse on 8320sq m has street frontages on all four sides. </div>However, Rutman said, the real value was in the future potential of the site. </div>“And the fact that you’ve got holding income from a reliable tenant is a really handy, because as you know these developments can take years,” he said. “To have an income producing property, from a financing perspective, is a very good thing.”Online records show the site—bounded by Cremorne, Bent and Dover streets as well as the CityLink Freeway—last changed hands in June of 2003 for $8.2 million.Cremorne— just 3km from the centre of Melbourne—is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/60-cremorne-street-seek-development-construction-melbourne" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/60-cremorne-street-seek-development-construction-melbourne">one of the city’s most sought-after commercial addresses</a>&nbsp;and is home to national corporations including Seek, Tesla, Carsales, REA Group, Domain, Reece and MYOB.JLL research shows tenant demand in Yarra City Council has continued to lead the office recovery nationally after recording two consecutive years of the highest net absorption figures.JLL head of office institutional sales Paul Kempton said they continued to field requests for scalable projects at Cremorne.<div id="2U7fr9KoHuZa9lqPwrr8EN"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/7xbaEuUH6YsZIXMyzvW8gi/5c0a7b075b07e5a70d0ab16b9c521f1b/Cremorne_Sale_2_Mid_.jpg" alt="A photograph of the Carsales headquarters—one of a number of national corporations which count Cremorne as their home." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/7xbaEuUH6YsZIXMyzvW8gi/5c0a7b075b07e5a70d0ab16b9c521f1b/Cremorne_Sale_2_Mid_.jpg"></picture><div>▲ Cremorne is home to a number of national corporations, including Seek, Tesla, REA Group, Domain and Carsales.</div><div> </div></div>“Until about five or six years ago they didn’t actually have a lot of new stock in the Cremorne market and the existing stock had been in place for a long period of time,” Kempton said.“Originally, that growth was tenant-led and that gave the developers confidence to build new stock because they understood the merits of doing that. Some of these were even built speculatively.”Kempton said those buildings were now effectively full and achieving high rental income.“So not only is the depth of tenants growing but the stock has been growing with it to keep demand. This is one of the better performing fringe office markets in Australia.”He said that although suburbs such as South Melbourne, Carlton and Collingwood would always be good fringe office markets they were restricted in how much stock they could accommodate.“Whereas Cremorne can actually accommodate a much larger scale of stock,” he said. “It’s up to 400,000sq m now but can probably go up to a million square metres, to be honest, over the next 10 to 15 years.“And it will all be tenant-demand lead because the land’s there.”

Twenty years after he first acquired it, a Sydney businessman is selling a rare 8000-sq-m-plus office site on the banks of the Yarra River in Melbourne’s popular inner eastern fringe.

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Mulpha, the Malaysian developer and real estate investor controlled by billionaire Lee Ming Tee and his family, has won approval for a $200-million, 17-storey hotel in Sydney’s Chinatown.The Sydney City Council has agreed to a 272-key hotel with ground floor restaurant and bar facilities at 355-357 Street, on the northern fringe of Haymarket.The developers will keep the façade of the existing five-storey warehouse, built around 1916 for Foley Brothers Pty Ltd and used for commercial factories until 1958. A second four-storey building will be demolished.Mulpha Australia said construction was expected to start in the first half of 2024 and finish in about two.Plans for the Cottee Parker-designed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/hotel-plans-filed-as-chinatown-sleeping-dragon-wakes" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/hotel-plans-filed-as-chinatown-sleeping-dragon-wakes">hotel were first lodged in May last year</a>, and signalled a rising number of developments across the precinct on the CBD’s southern edge.The development will be within walking distance of Darling Harbour, the Powerhouse Museum, the International Convention Centre, and Sydney’s famous Chinatown.Mulpha chief executive Greg Shaw said the hotel would contribute to the ongoing rejuvenation of the southern CBD into one of the most vibrant areas of Sydney.“With the strong rebound in both domestic and international tourism, it is vital that we have shovel-ready projects to grow accommodation capacity and meet demand,” Shaw said.“Sydney is leading the way in the Australian accommodation industry with strong occupancy levels set to increase further as the international market exceeds pre-Covid levels in 2024 and beyond.”<div id="3XBZLiTPigdxrTGVslp1Rp"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/7ERMqIRdNbOlicDG1lyHE4/66fb0d67f31a711eca10958c868587b0/Mulpha__Mid_800_x_785.jpg" alt="Mulpha expects to begin construction on the Sussex Street hotel by the first half of next year." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/7ERMqIRdNbOlicDG1lyHE4/66fb0d67f31a711eca10958c868587b0/Mulpha__Mid_800_x_785.jpg"></picture><div>▲ Mulpha expects to begin construction on the Sussex Street hotel by the first half of next year. </div></div>Mulpha—owner of a portfolio of top Australian hotel assets in Sydney, Perisher, the Hunter Valley, Hayman Island, Sanctuary Cove and Cairns—is currently in negotiations with potential operators of the new hotel.“This investment continues Mulpha’s long-term commitment to acquiring and developing high quality tourism and hospitality assets in key Australian destinations,” Shaw said.“We are advancing negotiations with global hotel operators to introduce new innovative hotel product for the Sydney market.”Mulpha’s Palmers Lane Retreat in the Hunter Valley is due to open in October 2023, and most recently it&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/mulpha-wins-tender-for-metro-towers-in-sydney-s-north-west" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/mulpha-wins-tender-for-metro-towers-in-sydney-s-north-west">won the tender to develop&nbsp;</a>three multi-level mixed-use towers on the Norwest Metro Station site, part of the biggest public transport project in Australia.That contract calls for three towers of 13 to 21 storeys on two podiums at 25-31 Brookhollow Avenue, Norwest, about 35km from downtown Sydney.The group has an extensive portfolio of real estate, property development, hospitality, education, retirement, private equity and debt assets, and also invests in some of the fastest growing and most vibrant economies in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.

Mulpha, the Malaysian developer and real estate investor controlled by billionaire Lee Ming Tee and his family, has won approval for a $200 million, 17-storey hotel in Sydney’s China Town.

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Industrial and logistics developer and manager Logos Property Group is looking to offload a 20-ha purpose-built, industrial estate in Melbourne’s west.Logos put an option on the site at 435-503 Mt Atkinson Road, about 25km west of Melbourne’s centre, in a joint-venture deal with the global building materials giant James Hardie Industries in February last year.Online records show the land, which is part of the Troups Road Logistics Estate, changed hands for $103.7 million.Logos undertook extensive infrastructure work, while James Hardie—the world’s biggest maker of fibre cement products—secured development approval for a 100,000-square-metre production facility.However, brokers say James Hardie’s focus has moved away from Melbourne and towards Sydney and Brisbane, and it will now not progress with the development.Global commercial real estate and investment managers JLL value the turnkey package around $250 million.JLL’s director of industrial and logistics capital markets Joel Scully said potential buyers would be able to collaborate on the design and development of turnkey facilities.“Onshore and offshore capital groups are actively seeking opportunities to secure prime grade assets in major markets with the ability to realise strong growth in the rental market,” Scully said.Industrial and logistic&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/cbre-jll-logistics-industrial-rent-rises-accelerate" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/cbre-jll-logistics-industrial-rent-rises-accelerate">rents have continued to rise across Australia</a>, according to data from CBRE, underpinned by extremely low vacancy rates.“Major occupiers are also seeking opportunities to own their facilities rather than rent to create certainty of occupancy costs which are expected to continue to increase over the medium term,” he said.<div id="51j2Ui95P4NeIlb2I65xXs"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/2ARKUKl01O6xZTyEvgYKsW/0febdb9ec19a6f095039357d0fd3feed/Logos_Industrial_Mid__.jpg" alt="An aerial photo showing the Truganina site, which JLL says has already seen considerable infrastructure work. " data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/2ARKUKl01O6xZTyEvgYKsW/0febdb9ec19a6f095039357d0fd3feed/Logos_Industrial_Mid__.jpg"></picture><div>▲ JLL says considerable infrastructure work has already been undertaken on the Truganina site.</div><div> </div></div>The site—with a potential gross lettable area of about 125,000sq m— has good access to Melbourne’s arterial road network, including the Western Freeway and the M80 Metropolitan Ring Road, and is surrounded by several big industrial and logistics players.JLL head of logistics and industrial capital markets Ben Hegerty said there had been at least 15 groups who had shown interest in the week the property had been listed.Those had included occupiers, institutional groups and data centres.“AI (Artificial Intelligence) computing takes up somewhere between four and eight times more search engine power than doing a normal search through, say, Google,” Hegerty said.“All of the providers are now looking to the AI clients, such as chat GPT and other groups who provide AI-powered paid-prescription arrangements … they’re trying to get those style of users in.“You’re going to see really big, generic data centres that can just churn through heaps of power. And you’ll see them in the outer metropolitan areas, near power nodes.“So something like this, where 20ha 12 months ago might have been too big for a data centre operator…well, now they’re saying 20ha, that might be worth looking at.”The registration-of-interest campaign closes on October 4.

Industrial and logistics developer and manager Logos Property Group is looking to off-load a 20-ha purpose-built, industrial estate in Melbourne’s west.

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Sydney-based developer Sammut Group has won approval for a $100-million beachfront apartment block in Cronulla, adding to its growing portfolio along Sydney’s southern coastline.Partnering with financier and investment manager Alceon Group, Sammut has been greenlit for the nine-storey mixed-use development with 23 luxury apartments and ground-floor retail above three levels of basement parking.To be known as Palm, the site of the development is across the road from another Sammut development of seven storeys, including five floors of commercial office space.The latest approval is on a 1300-square-metre site at 67 Gerrale Street, 110m from Cronulla Beach and about 190m from the train station.The developer picked up the site for $38 million in an off-market strata amalgamation deal with 18 separate owners in February last year.Under the approval Sammut will demolish two residential buildings—one of three storeys and the other of four—to make way for the new development.The 23 residential apartments will be across eight levels, and comprise six two-bedroom apartments, 17 of three bedrooms and a single penthouse.&nbsp;&nbsp;Four retail tenancies will take up about 310 square metres.The site has three street frontages—Gerrale Street, Beach Park Avenue and Surf Lane—for a total of 115 metres. Under amendments to the original design by PBD Architects, the building’s podium will present three storeys to Gerrale Street and five storeys to Surf Lane.<div><div id="2MBjDvIOBpgZjLEOAdXcNy"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/B9RfGQ9Vk5nahcBoMWved/3ab56c4728dc4564face9e58db27277d/Sammut_Cronulla_2_Mid_.jpg" alt="An artist's render of the Sammut Group’s latest Cronulla development approval." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/B9RfGQ9Vk5nahcBoMWved/3ab56c4728dc4564face9e58db27277d/Sammut_Cronulla_2_Mid_.jpg"></picture><div>▲ A render of the Sammut Group’s latest Cronulla development approval. </div>Sammut Group’s chief operating officer Julian Sammut said the development was an opportunity to enliven that laneway connecting the Cronulla station with South Cronulla beach. </div></div>“It will also inject a new vibrancy and vitality into the southern extremity of Cronulla Mall,” Sammut said.“Residents of Palm will be in the heart of Cronulla and within walking distance to everything that makes Cronulla a premium lifestyle location; the beach, the café culture, the fine dining.”Sammut Group’s latest development is part of the developer’s growing presence within Sutherland Shire Council, with a pipeline of about $835 million in the neighbourhood, including a transformational&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/sammut-cronulla-mixed-use-approved" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/sammut-cronulla-mixed-use-approved">$350-million mixed-use urban renewal project&nbsp;</a>on a 5225-sq-m amalgamated site at 3-23 Kingsway.Gerrale Street will be the fourth project between Sammut and Alceon—with three projects now in Cronulla and another on the Gold Coast.Pre-sales for the development will start this month.

Sydney-based developer Sammut Group has won approval for a $100 million beachfront apartment block in Cronulla, adding to a growing portfolio along Sydney’s southern coastline. 

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Port Phillip City Council has approved a residential mixed-use tower in Melbourne’s bayside but only if the developer scraps two levels from the 17-storey proposal.Caufield-based Auyin Property Development’s plans call for a 14-to-17-storey building with 94 apartments and food, drink and retail above three levels of basement parking for about 80 vehicles.The developers first lodged documents for the 1050sq m site at 14 Alma Road, St Kilda, in February, 2021. There were 45 objections to the $30-million development.Another 12 objections were received to amended plans that were filed in December last year, mostly regarding excessive building height and scale and loss of views to a nearby church.The council’s design and development overlay for the site allows for a discretionary maximum height of 13 storeys, or about 46m, with the possibility of a further two levels, with a height up to 53 metres.But in a report to the council in March this year, principal planner Phillip Beard recommended the southern part of the building be cut by two storeys.“Due to the site being located at the topographical high point of the St Kilda Hill precinct it is considered that the proposed height would not be acceptable,” Beard told the council.The proposal seeks 37 one-bedroom and 57 two-bedroom apartments plus a ground-floor food and drink outlet of about 200sq m and retail space of 60 square metres.The original plans also proposed some specialist disability accommodation (SDA) but that idea has since been scrapped.<div id="434Tn9ppTnA9z2ELbqUtpP"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/68P31MHeGuYbOV5PShpSuZ/e6bd22e70ec60056ffb75c5895de16f9/St_Kilda_Mid_800_x_650.jpg" alt="Objectors were concerned by excessive building height and scale, as well as the loss of views to a nearby church." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/68P31MHeGuYbOV5PShpSuZ/e6bd22e70ec60056ffb75c5895de16f9/St_Kilda_Mid_800_x_650.jpg"></picture><div>▲ Objectors were concerned by the planned building height and scale, as well as the loss of views of a nearby church.</div><div> </div></div>A two-storey, 1960s residential brick building with 22 apartments would be demolished to make way for the development.Beard said the council’s planning controls sought to encourage development that met the community’s retail, entertainment, office, and commercial service needs.“The proposed ground level, while only relatively small in relation to its commercial floor space, would achieve this,” Beard wrote.“These clauses also acknowledge that the population of Port Phillip will increase and, as such, development would need to accommodate increased housing demand.“New development needs to respect local character,” he said.&nbsp;&nbsp;“With the exception of height, this is considered to be achieved. The proposal would facilitate a substantial increase in dwelling numbers—even with the recommended level deletions—and would clearly activate this area in a much-needed way.”

Port Phillip City Council has approved a residential mixed-use tower in Melbourne’s bayside, on the condition the developers scrap two levels from what was to have been a 17-storey building.

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A rare freehold hotel with 96 rooms and a popular ground-floor bar has come to market in Melbourne’s centre.Savills Australia has fielded more than 50 inquiries—many from abroad—in the first week of the sales campaign for the Hotel Sophia on the corner of King and Little Lonsdale streets.Market analysts say the seven-storey hotel, which has been owned and operated by the same family for about 30 years, could sell for between $30 million and $35 million.The original two-storey pub, known as The Golden Age, is believed to date back to the 1890s, but in recent years has undergone several major renovations, including the addition of three storeys, delivering a further 48-rooms.Savills managing director for hotel capital markets Mark Durran said the expressions-of-interest campaign was attracting broad interest from local pub owners, hospitality providers, investment funds and institutional players in the hotel sector, as well as so-called boutique hostel operators.“These boutique hostel operators tend to take over the mid-market-type hotel offerings and supercharge them, aiming for millennials with a lifestyle offering that is centred around a strongly performing bar or entertainment space,” he saidDurran said there had been inquiries from the UK, Europe, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.The property had also attracted interest from high-net-worth individuals, who liked the freehold and vacant occupancy elements.“That's pretty rare,” he said.<div id="4vJYy4JT7gOOxareYjmbOa"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/4mT5L9JcsbXDoTGsmZcqzV/049eebae2a41e98c3261a0551b293a1d/Hotel_Sophia_Mid_.jpg" alt="The Hotel Sophia in Central Melbourne. The owners believe the lower floors date back to the 1890s." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/4mT5L9JcsbXDoTGsmZcqzV/049eebae2a41e98c3261a0551b293a1d/Hotel_Sophia_Mid_.jpg"></picture><div>▲ The Hotel Sophia in Central Melbourne. The owners believe the lower floors date back to the 1890s.</div><div> </div></div>“Most offerings in Melbourne that come up these days are strata; say, a hotel that might be part of a mixed-use development. And that is obviously less sought-after than a nice freehold bit of land.“It is a timely opportunity to capitalise on Melbourne’s tourism rebound. “The vacant possession enables an operator to effectively rebrand and reposition the hotel asset.”&nbsp;The hotel is close to Melbourne’s commercial office precinct, as well as Marvel Stadium, the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre and Southern Cross train station.Savills executive Nikola Sasic told&nbsp;The Urban Developer the Melbourne hotel market had done well to absorb what had been “quite a lot of additional stock” during the past few years.“It just shows that there is demand for accommodation in the Melbourne market,” he said.&nbsp;&nbsp;“And the rates where they are now post-Covid is very encouraging..&nbsp;“Given where construction costs have gone, I'd be surprised if a lot of those projects that were earmarked for development, those hotel projects, are still going to go ahead.“So given that there's going to be reduced supply entering the market, these existing hotels are set to benefit from what seems to be a very strong accommodation market in Australia's second capital.”One of the owners, Sarina Castan, said the family had been operating the hotel for 28 years.“It's pretty hard work, especially after Covid,” she said.“We were planning on selling it a few years ago but Covid delayed all that.&nbsp;&nbsp;We were closed for exactly two years.“Now it is time to try something new.”

A rare free-hold hotel with 96 rooms and a popular ground-floor bar has gone on sale in Melbourne’s centre.

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Publicly listed property developer Mirvac has filed amended plans for its seniors living project north-west of Sydney, lowering building heights, increasing separation and communal open space, and cutting 15 units from the proposal.The amendments come at the same time as Mirvac has appealed to the New South Wales Land Environment Council, arguing Parramatta City Council has taken too long to consider its original $144-million proposal, which will be part of the 90-year-old Oatlands Golf Club.Plans&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/mirvac-oatlands-sydney-aged-care-development-application" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/mirvac-oatlands-sydney-aged-care-development-application">filed nine months ago&nbsp;</a>called for 141 independent living units and 14 townhouses in seven buildings on the 1.6ha site at 94 Bettington Road, Oatlands. The buildings ranged from three to eight storeys.However, in documents lodged with Parramatta early last month, Mirvac is now seeking to lower the main building by one level to seven storeys, remove a single townhouse and 14 apartments, and lower carparking in two basement levels by 35 spaces to 399.A new club house for the golf course—23km north-west of Sydney’s centre—remains part of the proposal.Some balconies are to be removed to reduce building footprints and increase separation within the development.Town planners Hamptons Property Services, which lodged documents on behalf of Mirvac, said the new apartment configuration would include 18 single-bedroom, 96 two-bedroom and 13 three-bedroom independent living units. There would be 13 townhouses.Amendments to building separation meant there was now 4706sq m of communal open space along the ground plane.Hamptons said the amended development application was intended to address a number of concerns raised by the public in written and oral submissions, “particularly with respect to the scale of the proposed development and its interface and impact on adjoining properties”.<div id="5dSumiE6PLiTuesQr2wCV9"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/7tMXEbdnpPkMPK37FTMOBi/7c249d5cd7df678e2bec30d59ced6dc9/Mirvac_Seniors_Mid__.jpg" alt="An artist's impression of the development. Under the amended plans Mirvac will remove a single townhouse and 14 apartments. " data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/7tMXEbdnpPkMPK37FTMOBi/7c249d5cd7df678e2bec30d59ced6dc9/Mirvac_Seniors_Mid__.jpg"></picture><div>▲ Under the amended plans Mirvac will remove a single townhouse and 14 apartments.</div><div> </div></div>Hamptons said the new plans came after a public exhibition and community session in January, a determination meeting with the Sydney Central City Planning Panel in May and various meetings with Parramatta council in June and July.Parramatta city councillor Kellie Darley said there were two streams happening within the planning process.“The Sydney central planning panel deferred the issue for four weeks to give Mirvac time to submit the amended plans,” Darley told&nbsp;The Urban Developer.“It took them a lot longer, so it’s only now the amendments have gone on public exhibition again, and that’s just closed.“The council will do another assessment based on the amended plans and then provide a report back to the planning panel.”Darley said there was “a gap” between the council’s position on the proposal and what Mirvac was offering.“In the original application the tallest building was eight storeys and council was saying four,” Darley said. “Mirvac indicated they were willing to compromise, so the planning panel offered them the chance to put in amended plans.”An hearing before the Land and Environment Court has been scheduled for late December.

Publicly-listed property developer Mirvac has filed amended plans for its seniors living project north-west of Sydney, lowering building heights, increasing separation and communal open space and cutting 15 units from the proposal.

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Privately-owned builder-developer Deicorp has filed plans for a 32-storey residential tower overlooking the Parramatta River in Sydney’s western suburbs.Under the plans, 214 apartments would sit above a four-level podium containing six commercial and retail tenancies on a combined 2920sq m on the Rhodes Peninsula, about 12km west of Sydney’s centre.Plans before the Canada Bay City Council call for the demotion of six single-storey masonry houses on six adjoining lots at 1-9 Marquet and 4 Mary streets to make way for the development.Forty-eight of the apartments would be one bedroom, 122 two bedroom and 44 of three bedrooms.Four basement levels with access via Marquet Street, will allow parking for 182 vehicles, but the developers are also incorporating end-of-trip facilities as well as space for up to 555 bicycles.The fit-out and operation of the retail and commercial tenancies within the development will be subject of separate approval.Fender Katsalidis beat out two other invited architectural firms for the right to design the building. The decision by a three-person jury was unanimous.Construction costs for the high-rise are estimated at $115 million.<div id="211ZVlUxfX33rVEsM9BqCg"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/3T7dfJp0g2uAKBIGGuwDZf/8e79deda125db082bb92182060799120/FKMED_22228_N13_medium.jpg" alt="null" data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/3T7dfJp0g2uAKBIGGuwDZf/8e79deda125db082bb92182060799120/FKMED_22228_N13_medium.jpg"></picture><div>▲ A render of the proposed high-rise slated for the Rhodes site. </div></div>Urban planners Gyde Consulting told the council the site was about 250m from the Rhodes train station and the proposal would include a through-site link connecting to neighbouring streets.“The vision is to deliver an outstanding shoptop housing development outcome which contributes to the transformation of the Rhodes East Precinct and Station Gateway West Precinct,” Gyde wrote in documents.The NSW Department of Planning and Environment led changes to the planning framework of the Rhodes Peninsula Precinct, resulting in new development standards introduced to Canada Bay’s local environmental plan in October of 2021.&nbsp;Canada Bay City Council has opened the to public comment for the next three weeks, although the final deciding authority will be the Sydney Eastern City Planning Panel.

The developer is plotting 214 apartments at Rhodes, west of the Sydney CBD, as the suburb’s hot run continues…

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James Baulderstone is unashamedly passionate about trucks, trains and the freight they carry.“Freight is life,” he tells his audience.The audience—members of a Property Council of Australia meeting in Melbourne—laugh as one. But Baulderstone is only half joking.Freight is life, and the backbone of the Australian economy, he reiterates. And he has the statistics to prove it.Freight and logistics employ 1.2 million people in Australia who collectively help move 3.7 billion tonnes of product a year. That represents 8.6 per cent of the country gross domestic product. And it’s set to grow by 26 per cent by 2050.As chief executive of federal government’s National Intermodal, Baulderstone’s job is to oversee the country’s critical logistics infrastructure and prepare for the explosive growth just around the corner.Australia’s online spend last year was about $64 billion—up 23 per cent from the year before—and all amid a global pandemic, a war in Europe and what Baulderstone calls “China being difficult”.“And that’s really put a focus on industrial land,” he says. “It has never been more important.”<h2>Industrial floor space demands growing</h2> Colliers, the real estate services and investment manager, says suppliers are now taking 5-20 per cent more warehouse space to buffer against the kinds of global disruptions that threatened supply chains in the past three years.&nbsp;In fact, Colliers argues online retail alone will need an extra 520,000sq m of storage space each year.National Intermodal has a single shareholder—the Australian Government. It was set up to look at both current operations and future development of open access intermodal precincts along the country’s eastern seaboard. In short, how to get as much freight around the country in as short a possible time.<div id="6oLNlPTy2Vd6xaF8JoeJpp"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/1qsCXxhpmUB9QmBIuE5Z6n/ef9a9410f6330f8b64ce4637df4fe05b/Intermodal_Mid_1__800x500_.jpg" alt="Victoria's newest intermodal freight terminal will be able to handle 1800-m-long, double-stacked freight trains." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/1qsCXxhpmUB9QmBIuE5Z6n/ef9a9410f6330f8b64ce4637df4fe05b/Intermodal_Mid_1__800x500_.jpg"></picture><div>▲ Victoria’s newest intermodal freight terminal north of Melbourne (main picture) will be able to handle 1800m-long, double-stacked freight trains.</div><div> </div></div>Those intermodal precincts are designed to co-locate transport modes, such as rail, road and shipping with large-scale warehouse solutions and delivery routes. Very large scale.When completed, Moorebank Intermodal Precinct for example—32km south-west of Sydney and covering 240ha—will be about the size of the Sydney’s central business district, stretching from Circular Quay to Central Station.<h2>Billion-dollar co-located warehouse developments run hot</h2> Industrial developer Logos is leading a consortium—including Australian Super, AXA IM Alts, Canada’s Ivanhoé Cambridge and TCorp—in a deal with Qube for the giant facility.Ultimately, the decade-long development will create 850,000sq m of warehousing and two intermodal transport terminals.Those will be integrated with the Import Export (IMEX) rail shuttle that runs non-stop between Port Botany and Moorebank on the dedicated Southern Sydney Freight Line (SSFL).At a time of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/melbourne-industrial-land-undersupply-warning-pca" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/melbourne-industrial-land-undersupply-warning-pca">severe shortages of gazetted industrial land&nbsp;</a>in NSW and Victoria, tenants have flocked to take up early space in what will be the biggest freight and logistics terminal in the country. Purpose-built warehousing facilities are already completed for Catch, Caesarstone, Mainfreight and Qube Logistics.&nbsp;Critically, according to Baulderstone, Woolworths—the country’s biggest supermarket chain—was a foundation customer at Moorebank “who came in early and are spending over a billion dollars on this facility as we speak” on regional and national distribution centres.“This is where industrial land and the logistics sector really come together,” Baulderstone says.“This is where the co-location of warehousing, the ability of the trucks to come and use that last mile, and the ability to retrofit and to actually put in place renewable energy zones inside a logistics precinct is really important.”And it’s about rail.&nbsp;<div id="54wSITpItv7769wzEnA9T1"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/1JBCkepZ21qfZVMTbxbDVp/e0732a149d14da1048ae2e524b916aa4/Beveridge_MID1.jpg" alt="National Intermodal's James Baulderstone: He says freight by road produces 16 times more carbon emissions than freight by rail." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/1JBCkepZ21qfZVMTbxbDVp/e0732a149d14da1048ae2e524b916aa4/Beveridge_MID1.jpg"></picture><div>▲ National Intermodal’s James Baulderstone: He says freight by road produces 16 times more carbon emissions than freight by rail.</div><div> </div></div>At full capacity, the Moorebank Logistics Park will cut more than 3000 heavy truck movements from Sydney’s roads each day, in turn reducing truck emissions by more than 110,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (equivalent), each year.Rail, which produces about 16 times less carbon, will pick up the slack.Baulderstone says in the past 30 years, the amount of freight moving across the country has tripled, but freight delivered by road has taken almost all of that growth.“Over that period of time the share of the market that rail moves has gone from 30 per cent to less than 10 per cent,” he said.But the real problem, he says, is the forecast growth in Australia’s freight.“We’re talking about 1.4 million containers moving up and down the east coast of Australia.“Our roads and truck networks cannot handle this much freight and we’ve got to get better and more efficient at managing this volume that is coming at us.”Governments, both federal and state, as well as National Intermodal are betting on the multibillion-dollar, 1727-km-long Inland Rail project—which will connect the ports of Melbourne and Brisbane, as well as the Sydney-Perth rail corridor—to solve the problem.<h2>Victorian freight project to dwarf Moorebank</h2> Despite&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/inland-rail-report-2023-freight-terminals-east-coast-australia" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/inland-rail-report-2023-freight-terminals-east-coast-australia">a scathing review of the rail project&nbsp;</a>thus far, in June this year National Intermodal completed a deal to buy a sprawling 1100ha property in Beveridge, 40km north of Melbourne.&nbsp;If the Moorebank’s boast is it’s the biggest intermodal freight terminal in the country, it won’t be for long.<div id="1YvyiFp1VZVkZCMK7Hu1md"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/5ZAl5zLTYpmxygURtV63b8/d63bd76b028284e3b440665fd2d9a985/Intermodal_Mid__2.jpg" alt="Moorebank Intermodal Precinct. The freight and logistics hub is just 32km south-west of Sydney and covers 240 hectares. Source: LOGOS" data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/5ZAl5zLTYpmxygURtV63b8/d63bd76b028284e3b440665fd2d9a985/Intermodal_Mid__2.jpg"></picture><div>▲ Moorebank Intermodal Precinct. The freight and logistics hub is just 32km south-west of Sydney and covers 240 hectares. Source: LOGOS</div><div> </div></div>Melbourne is the freight capital of the country and the Beveridge Intermodal Precinct will reflect that.Two-and-a-half times the size of Moorebank, Beveridge will have 600ha of developable land, upon which there is the possibility of up to two million square metres of warehousing.The rail journey for freight between Melbourne and Brisbane will be under 24 hours—12 hours less than freight by road. But most importantly, Beveridge will be the only Victorian intermodal capable of handling 1800m-long, double-stacked freight trains.Baulderstone predicts Beveridge could be fully energy sufficient.He says rooftop solar on a facility that size, together with battery storage, can power all the terminal operations, all the warehouse tenants and electric trucks, as well as electric locomotives for port shuttles.In fact, Beveridge’s solar capacity—estimated about 200MW—would currently make it the six biggest solar farm in Australia.<h2>Growth opportunity for northern corridor development</h2> But the big opportunities, says Urbis director Eleni Roussos, will come from the 6800 direct jobs the facility will create, with another 20,000 indirect jobs expected.“This is going to sow the seeds of a shift into the that northern corridor,” says the urban planner, who specialises in the industrial sector.“The west has been the centre of industrial and logistics land in Victoria for a long period of time.&nbsp;“It’s where the supply has been. It’s got easy connections to the port, it’s got proximity to staff, and flat land at a good price. It had all the right metrics and criteria to develop but it’s very close to reaching its end.<div id="2jqDgt80IiSS8PuNDoII8b"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/4MeWTcqfZFGOkdmdENryA1/85bb91f9e990c67fb76e3c1b30c9b4fa/Beveridge_MID2.jpg" alt="Urbis director Eleni Roussos. The urban planner says the Beveridge Intermodal Terminal will create opportunities in Melbourne's northern corridor." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/4MeWTcqfZFGOkdmdENryA1/85bb91f9e990c67fb76e3c1b30c9b4fa/Beveridge_MID2.jpg"></picture><div>▲ Urbis director Eleni Roussos. The urban planner says the Beveridge Intermodal Precinct will create opportunities in Melbourne’s northern corridor.</div><div> </div></div>“And you’ll well know the land supply issues that we’re facing from a state perspective, and specifically in that western corridor, and I suspect that the intermodal in the north will help move from everyone looking in the west to now starting to look to the north.”<h2>Ripple effect in ‘quantum of development’</h2> Roussos says once there is the quantum of development, particularly given the big plays from large tenant types, there will be the opportunity for new campus-style developments.“Someone might want a head office out there as a part of their warehouse,” she says.“And whether that’s a bespoke office within the facility itself, or whether that’s a custom-built office facility with multiple tenants … and then there’s all sorts of synergies that are around that.“Would there be a hotel there for people that are flying in for the day or the week to do their board meetings and the like, coming in from overseas or from interstate or wherever?“This is something that you could certainly anticipate in the future and remember we’ve got a significant residential corridor up there as well.“So there’s very good access to employment.”Roussos says there is now a realisation Australia can’t rely on the rest of the world for everything.“Now we’ve got to start doing a few things for ourselves and hopefully that means we’ll see a bit of a change in the way we manufacture, produce and move our goods,” she says.“We need a bit more self-reliance, I think.”&nbsp; <hr> You are currently experiencing&nbsp;The Urban Developer&nbsp;Plus (TUD+), our premium membership for property professionals.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/membership-plans" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/membership-plans">Click here to learn more.</a><div id="2GhuueZl01Zwo2aFfjNVi2"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/12UMq5eMSEOh0QxJVBYaDt/d7507cf4ceb1365cc9ce7eaff84d06cc/tud___banner.jpg" alt="TUD + Banner" data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/12UMq5eMSEOh0QxJVBYaDt/d7507cf4ceb1365cc9ce7eaff84d06cc/tud___banner.jpg"></picture><div> </div></div>

Freight and logistics employ 1.2 million people in Australia who collectively help move 3.7 billion tonnes of product a year.   With that's set to grow by 26 per cent in the next 30 years, there's opportunity in new growth corridors...