A redevelopment for St Kilda’s Novotel

Property developer Tim Gurner plans to redevelop to the Novotel site fronting St Kilda’s The Esplanade.

The Novotel hit the market earlier this year but failed to sell.

Gurner will redevelop the 6000 square metre beachfront site and turn it into a $550 million luxury residential development.

The project will see him partnering with the beachfront site’s present owner, Greg Shand’s Barana Group. The Barana Group has a business model that acquires properties which have potential due to their zoning, location and aspect

Phil Green, a former head of failed investment group Babcock & Brown which entered liquidation in 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis, will act as finance partner for the project.

The 14-16 The Esplanade site already has a permit for 240 apartments and 360 carparks over eights levels.

But Gurner has bigger plans. He will be appointing an architecture and interior design team to deliver the residential precinct, with resort-style amenity, to what is arguably Melbourne’s most significant beachfront site and he has started an international design competition. He will be instructing the winning architecture team to design 130 to 140 larger residential dwellings plus a wine bar and restaurant.

It is one of Melbourne’s most valuable residential sites and attracted interest at the $110 million mark when it was put on the market.

The prices for the St Kilda Novotel will start from $1 million to $15 million. The four penthouses will be priced up to $30 million.

“A site of this scale, in one of Melbourne’s most iconic suburbs, with uninterrupted views of the bay and the city skyline is irreplaceable; this truly is a once-in-a-lifetime site and opportunity for buyers and we can’t wait to bring it to life,” Gurner said in a statement.

Construction work on the project is expected to commence later next year and the Novotel will continue operation until construction starts.

Leon Getler 2nd July 2018.