Cbus Property finds new perch on Spring St
Cbus Property has bought a hotel property on Spring Street in the Melbourne CBD in a $70 million-plus deal that gives the developer opportunity to redevelop the site into a ritzy apartment tower.
The busy super fund developer has bought the Mercure Melbourne Treasury Gardens Hotel at 13-21 Spring Street from a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
The site overlooks the Treasury Gardens and is just metres from a landmark apartment tower that Cbus Property recently completed.
The existing 4-star hotel – ADIA holds the freehold as part of a 31-asset portfolio it acquired in an $800 million deal with Tourism Asset Holdings Limited four years ago – will remain running as Cbus Property begins planning its second Spring Street tower.
The developer hopes to lodge a planning application early next year. All going to plan, a residential project could be underway by late 2019.
“The proposed development will complement Cbus Property’s current and past residential projects in the Melbourne CBD, including Collins Arch Melbourne, which is currently under construction, and 35 Spring Street which was completed in April this year,” said chief executive Adrian Pozzo.
“Cbus Property has clearly demonstrated itself as being one of Melbourne’s pre-eminent developers and already has strong interest from past purchasers to be part of our next luxury residential offering.”
The developer acquired the 1,270 square metre site in an off-market deal brokered by Colliers International’s Gus Moors.
The $350 million residential skyscraper at 35 Spring Street sold out and is now completed, with its owners and tenants moving in earlier this year.
It was the first of a new generation of upmarket apartments on Spring Street, just near the ‘Paris end’ of Collins Street.
Since then, Jeff Xu’s Golden Age has taken over a ritzy residential project at 85 Spring Street, a project which was previously controlled by Grocon.
The next Cbus tower will look across the Treasury and Fitzroy Gardens, and towards the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Melbourne’s east.
On the other side of the parkland is East Melbourne where Cbus is active on another upscale apartment development through a joint venture with Brookfield.
That $150 million project is at two sites, on Clarendon Street and Wellington Parade.
Back in the CBD, Cbus is also moving rapidly on the $1.25 billion Collins Arch project, now popularly knowns as the Pantscraper, which includes office space,a hotel and apartments across tow towers joined by a skybridge.
And in Sydney this week, Cbus Property is launching a $1 billion residential development at the historic Newmarket horse stables in Sydney’s Randwick.
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