Mixed use

Keen investors or companies looking to snap up a prime site in the heart of Sydney have been given a rare opportunity.

Lendlease has signed a $4 billion contract to develop a mixed-use redevelopment on a 100ha brownfield site in Milan, Italy, which would become the city’s new innovation district.

The race for QIC Global Real Estate’s prized Collins St complex in the heart of Melbourne central business district is coming to a head with two major listed Australian players, Dexus and Charter Hall, in contention as another prime contender, Mirvac, bows out.

Singapore-based SC Capital has unveiled plans for a $700 million mixed-use hotel and office tower in the heart of Sydney for which it will seek investors later this year.

Plans by the James Packer-backed casino giant Crown Resorts and the private Schiavello Group to build the $2 billion One Queensbridge hotel and apartment complex at Melbourne’s Southbank have been put in limbo after the Victorian government refused to extend the development permit.

The downturn in house prices is not stopping Chinese-backed developer Visionary from lodging development applications for a $1.1 billion four-tower residential, hotel and office complex project at Macquarie Park, which is slowly being transformed into a high-density urban centre.

It takes vision to imagine a cow paddock on Melbourne’s western fringe being transformed into a $150 million soccer stadium surrounded by a commercial property precinct within five years.

QIC Global Real Estate and joint venture partners MAB Corporation and Gibson Property Corporation will start work in the new year on the $40 million first stage of their Merrifield City Centre in Melbourne’s northern growth corridor.

Fortius Funds Management has bought a major mixed-use complex in Brisbane, known as The Barracks, from financial services company Challenger for about $162 million.