Landmark Melbourne site hits market after a century
The owners of custom timber product and moulding manufacturer, Porta, have listed the company’s spectacularly located headquarters abutting Yarra Bend Park, near the Fairfield border with Clifton Hill.
Also staring down the Yarra River, the 1.17 hectare site, 224-256 Heidelberg Road, is expected to find favour with heavyweight residential developers, being identified by Yarra council as one of the municipality’s most appropriate sites for repurposing.
More than $55 million could be expected, according to sources.
A project with an end value circling $500m could be delivered, with over 350 apartments.
The listing comes 11 years since Amcor sold an ex-paper mill in Alphington, east of Fairfield, to Alpha Partners and Glenvill,
On 16.5ha also near the Yarra River, that plot has since been making way for a residential based mixed-use village, Yarra Bend, with some 2500 dwellings mooted, a mix of apartments and townhouses.
One of the six components, 640 Heidelberg Rd, spreading 2.1ha, is earmarked for a $600m project with 600 build to rent flats, and 25,000 sqm of commercial space including a Coles.
Site set for redevelopment
Porta moved to 224-256 Heidelberg Road in 1921 from the CBD where it was established 53 years earlier.
A relocation from Fairfield has been expected – four years ago, the owners added value obtaining a planning scheme for a major redevelopment with 344 dwellings in five towers – between six and 13 floors.
Any incoming owner might try for something denser – a 17 level tower was approved for Alpha and Glenvill, while an 18 storey building was in 2022 permitted as part of a Northcote Plaza redevelopment (story continues below).
Only a rendered façade facing Heidelberg Rd and a brick chimney painted with the Porta brand would need to be retained at 224-256 Heidelberg Rd. It is expected the chimney would be shifted onsite.
Lukas Byrns, who is marketing the property with Paul Callanan and Peter Sagar, of LAWD, described it as one of the city’s best remaining apartment sites – with 250 metres of park frontage and uninterrupted city skyline views.
It is also zoned Commercial 1, 350m from a health and education precinct including a Melbourne Polytechnic campus, he added.
“This sits above an expansive 260ha of parkland, including river trails,” according to the executive.
There are also golf courses, he said.
At the south east corner of Yarra Bend Rd, the Porta block is 4.2 kilometres from the CBD.
In this part of town, Heidelberg Rd is the suburb divide with Northcote.
Merri Creek, also the Clifton Hill suburb border, is a couple of hundred metres away.
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