A $2 billion “mini-city” is expected to rise in Yarraville with the backing of Asian developers.
A worldwide marketing campaign for the former Bradmill cotton mill site appears to have secured a financial windfall for owners De Group, which reportedly bought the site from receivers in 2002 for $7 million and paid $16 million for two neighbouring blocks.
The deal for selling 24 hectares of the 26-hectare site to a south-east Asian developer is said to be worth more than $120 million – a record price for inner-city residential land. The renamed Yarraville Gardens site, bounded by Francis Street, McIvor Reserve and the Newport freight railway line, was rezoned from industrial to residential and mixed-use in 2011.
The development could house more than 7000 new residents in a mix of townhouses and apartment blocks of up to six storeys.
But CBRE’s Mark Wizel, who marketed the site, said there was “significant scope” to increase the development’s density.
De Group was recently granted planning approval by Maribyrnong council for a $20 million development on the Francis Street edge of the site that will include a new library, medical centre, restaurant, service station, two supermarkets and 30 shops. Company chief Colin DeLutis has told the
Weekly he originally intended to develop the whole site but received a number of approaches to sell in the past five years.
Maribyrnong mayor Grant Miles said he was certain residents would welcome the revitalisation of a site that had been empty for almost a decade.
He expects the new owners will approach the council with a new development vision.
Cr Miles said the council would lobby the state government to boost public transport serving the site.
