Gurner to create "the next St Moritz" at newly acquired St Kilda Road, Melbourne site
Developer GURNERTM is plotting to create an $800 million mixed-use development on Melbourne's St Kilda Road, having secured a prime site facing Albert Park.
The plan is for between 160 to 180 residences on a 4,651 sqm site corner site at 424–426 St Kilda Road which has three frontages on the corner of St Kilda Road, Toorak Road and Queens Lane.
The unnamed project will offer uninterrupted views over the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain precinct, the city skyline and Albert Park Lake.
Once complete, the project will boast walkability to Anzac Station, Albert Park Lake, the Royal Botanic Gardens and Fawkner Park, and be in easy proximity to South Yarra’s retail and dining precinct.
Residences will be focused on private nature of the precinct for downsizers and lifestyle upsizers with a focus on wellness, and lifestyle, with plans for on-site retail that would complement the project’s prestigious location, and wellness amenities that will promote a healthy lifestyle among residents.
GURNERTM, led by Tim Gurner, secured the blue-chip property through an off-market negotiation after the site was taken to market by JLL’s Josh Rutman & Mingxuan Li and CBRE’s Kiran Pillai and Tom Ryan in late 2022.
The site is currently home to two six-storey commercial office buildings joined by a five-level atrium, which will be demolished at the end of the current leases, to make way for the residential building.
There is a lapsed permit approval on the site, which allowed for an 18-storey building with 339 apartments and 292 car spaces. GURNERTM intends to submit a new planning scheme.
Gurner said he's had his eye on the site for over a decade.
“I have had my eye on this particular site for over a decade, having cut my teeth with Morry Schwartz on 401 St Kilda Road in 2008 across the road so it’s humbling to be able to come full circle with another site now directly across the road some 15 years later, still with the same aspirations to create a new benchmark for residential design just as 401 did at the time."
He said Saint Moritz showed the depth of this end of the market.
"We are excited to evolve and elevate this concept and take it even further with this project. With its prime iconic corner location it will become an iconic landmark for Melbourne so we cannot wait to do this site justice.
Gurner is calling the project a "longer-term play", given there's long-term tenants in the current commercial space.
This is the second acquisition in as many months for the developer after its recent purchase of a significant site in 189 Kent Street, Sydney in July for over $200 million, and is the second seed site in GURNERTM’s Build-to-Sell fund, which is supported by a global institutional investor.
GURNERTM Chief Development Officer Robert Clarke said the team are actively seeking more opportunities in Melbourne and Sydney, with the hope to announce more acquisitions soon.
“It’s a tough environment for developers and commercial asset owners currently, and the effects of interest rate hikes are still yet to really play out across valuations and interest covenants, so we do
expect to see a continuing trend of office assets being put on the market at discounted 2022 prices.”
