Chong grabs slice of Vision site for hotel

The owners of the site, AMP Capital Select Property Portfolio No3 (SPP3) and private developer Billbergia, finalised the deal to sell part of the former Vision site to Felicity last night for about $50 million.

Mr Chong is now poised to make even greater strides in the city’s hotel market following from the successful opening of his Four Points by Sheraton last year.

His 4½ star hotel at 99 Mary Street was the first internationally branded hotel to be built from the ground up in Brisbane for 16 years and his latest play adds to the tide of new hotels planned in the city.

The hotel move was flagged by The Australian earlier this year, as were moves by office developers to secure the site.

But now AMP Capital and Billbergia, and Mr Chong, will revamp the site, which had been a deadweight on the city’s development industry.

Ahead of the global financial crisis failed developer Austcorp had planned a twin tower mixed-use project, but could not secure financing, and the project was cited as a potential investment for the former government-backed property lender known as RuddBank.

The construction of the first stage of the site — an eight-level, 900-bay car park that forms the basement structure for the future development — is now complete.

AMP Capital Select Property Portfolio No3 fund manager Warwick Petschack said: “The transaction is in line with SPP3’s strategy to add value to its existing investments and pursue development opportunities in the Australian property market. The hotel site is now substantially de-risked and allows the buyer to immediately commence construction.”

A spokesman for Felicity, Ian Pert of GMP Management, said his client was excited about the opportunity to develop a new five-star hotel in Brisbane and was assessing its design options with a view to start building as soon as possible pending development approval.

AMP and Billbergia submitted a development application to Brisbane City Council in July that would allow a five-star hotel to be built on the Mary Street side of the site, replacing what would have been an office building under the current development approval.

The new approval also now provides for an apartment-only tower on Margaret Street which AMP and Billbergia will develop.

AMP Capital and Billbergia’s planned 90-storey Margaret Street tower will include more than 1000 one to three-bedroom apartments, boasting views across the Botanic Gardens and east towards Moreton Bay. At 274m in height, the tower would be among the tallest in the country, behind only Q1 on the Gold Coast and the Eureka Tower in Melbourne.

It would be the tallest building in Brisbane and local and offshore buyers are expected to chase the opportunity through selling agent CBRE.

The developers and CBRE will shortly unveil a new name and branding for the residential tower as they seek to capitalise on unit price differentials across Australia.

“While Sydney and Melbourne have experienced rapid price growth, the gap to comparable Brisbane apartment prices indicates that now is an excellent time to be operating within this market,” Mr Petschack said.

Source: The Australian - 18th September 2014