Leading real estate investment house, MaxCap Group, has teamed up with pioneering Melbourne developers Neometro and Milieu in a joint venture to deliver a $45 million residential project in Brunswick.

Situated within the Jewell Station precinct, One Wilson Avenue, the latest building in a multi staged development, is an eight-storey mixed-use building that includes 41 residential apartments, 6 flexible work/live studios and over 900sqm of retail and strata office space.

Over a number of years, both Neometro and Milieu have established a strong reputation for delivering successful, high quality, owner-occupier designed apartments in developments within Melbourne’s city fringe.

“One Wilson Ave in Brunswick’s Jewell Precinct is a multi-stage development and a key part of the local council’s plan to build on the area’s unique character, revitalise the heritage retail precinct, and better integrate transportation and amenities,” said James Tutton, Director, Neometro.

Mr Tutton, added, “Despite the fairly extreme challenges that 2020 threw at all of us Melburnians, we were still able to secure significant pre-sales to local owner-occupiers and appoint a head contractor. Construction is now underway with completion targeted for mid-2022. We couldn’t be more excited to be bringing this vision to life and the contribution it will make to the local community.”

“The project harnesses Neometro and Milieu’s complementary approaches to creating truly liveable homes,” said Milieu Managing Director Michael McCormack,

“Having been friends and peers for a long time, it has been a mutual pleasure for us to work together for the first time along with the MaxCap team. With a shared passion for creating exceptional homes, Neometro and Milieu view this project as an opportunity to combine respective strengths, share knowledge and unite to deliver intelligent and sustainable homes for a growing city.”

For MaxCap, this was an opportunity to expand its investment in the precinct. “MaxCap has a long standing relationship with Neometro having provided debt funding in the precinct on the neighbouring Union St and Jewell Station projects,” said MaxCap’s Head of Direct Investment, Simon Hulett, “So when the opportunity arose to participate in a three-way equity joint venture with Milieu also, it was an easy decision for us. The groups have done an incredible job de-risking the project through 2020 – we continue to be extremely impressed by all the project’s stakeholders.”

The joint venture partners confirmed the appointment of Manresa Construction as the lead contractor for the Fieldwork designed project with works having commenced on site in January.

The project, designed by Fieldwork with interiors by Design Office, emphasises the project teams’ belief that sustainability is about longevity and strategic design. This means favouring durable materials that wear in (not out); integrating renewable energy; and devising spaces that can respond passively to changes in weather.

• High Sustainability Ratings – Building is designed with an average 7.5 NatHERs rating and 70% BESS score.
• Natural Amenity – Daylight/ natural light – All bedrooms and living areas are provided with direct access to natural light. The window sizes have been specifically designed to optimise and balance natural light/views with thermal comfort.
• Solar/Grid Solution – A Solar PV system will be located on the roof of the building. For the long-term benefit and flexibility of all owners, the Owners Corporation Manager will act as Embedded Network operator, and the Owners Corporation will own the infrastructure. In this scenario the residents will get the direct benefit of the solar generated electricity and will also be able to sell it back to the grid and retail space on ground floor to subsidise the residential use of the building.

Leading Queensland developer, Honeycombes Property Group has teamed up with Australasian commercial real estate investment manager, MaxCap Group to enter into a joint venture partnership. The JV will deliver an exciting new $140m transit oriented mixed use development at Ferny Grove, in Brisbane’s fast growing north-west.

The major project is to be built on land directly adjoining the rail and bus interchange at Ferny Grove Station. It will include the Ferny Grove Central shopping precinct of over 12,000sqm NLA, 82 residential apartments known as ‘The Fernery’ – and a multi deck commuter car park with more than 450 additional car bays providing much-improved amenity for the local community.

Following a competitive tender process run by the Queensland State Government in 2017, Honeycombes secured the exclusive rights to develop the site. Since then, Honeycombes has worked through an extensive planning and design phase with all levels of Government and the local community, culminating in planning approval being recently secured from Brisbane City Council.

Peter Honeycombe, managing director of Honeycombes Property Group, said, “Our Company has a strong commitment to stakeholder engagement. This is reflected in the interaction leading up to the project’s planning approval. We held more than a dozen different public forums, door knocked hundreds of residences neighbouring the project, and letter box dropped thousands of information fliers to keep the community informed.”

“The community feedback from these initiatives played a big part in our ongoing refinement of the proposed development form, with the aim of reflecting the needs expressed by the various community interest groups in and around Ferny Grove station.”

“At the same time, we have built a very strong relationship with the Queensland State Government over a long period and are committed to positive communication throughout this process. The Queensland Government has provided a $9m funding contribution towards the additional park ‘n’ ride spaces and the Federal Government has contributed $11m. We now look forward to jointly delivering an excellent project for the community having secured the partnership with MaxCap.”

This is MaxCap’s first equity investment in Queensland and adds to its growing portfolio of joint venture partnerships the Group has entered into nationally.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with an organisation with the experience of Honeycombes Property Group and their 25-year track record of delivering high quality product in Queensland.” said Simon Hulett, MaxCap’s head of Direct Investment, “MaxCap provided debt funding to Honeycombes on the highly awarded Coorparoo Square development in 2015 so there was already an existing relationship for us to now build on in a joint venture capacity.”

“MaxCap’s direct investment portfolio is now well diversified by asset class and geography providing a resilient platform for future growth. A key element of this is the strength of the partners that we invest with – and the quality of the underlying real estate. Ferny Grove is a great example of this, providing a compelling opportunity that was highly sought after by our investors. We have a bullish view on the long-term growth and stability of the Brisbane market and look forward to investing there further,“ Mr Hulett added.

Mr Honeycombe highlighted the significance of the Ferny Grove project as an ideal location for such a development given it is an ‘end of line’ rail station catering for more than  5000 passengers per day arriving at the Ferny Grove transport node via bus, car, bike, and on foot.

“The development will breathe new life into the suburb, creating a neighbourhood village atmosphere. We have already received an unprecedented amount of interest from the local market, with a high level of demand for both the residential apartments and retail opportunities alike,” said Mr Honeycombe.

Honeycombes and MaxCap are expecting to announce a number of major anchor tenants early in 2021 with a mix of high profile national retailers, including supermarket, fitness, child care and cinema providers expected to be secured on long term leases. Additionally, the joint venture partners are in the final stages of securing a head contractor for the project with construction due for commencement in March 2021.

MaxCap Group, Australia and New Zealand’s leading commercial real estate lender and investment manager, confirmed today it has successfully acted as lead arranger and financier of Construction facility ‘Sierra’ a quality residential apartment project.

MaxCap and Goldman Sachs have provided the finance for this large scale residential and commercial project in Hawthorn in Melbourne’s east. The project which has a gross end value of approximately $250m, is to be developed by JD Group a specialist in delivering successful projects in some of Melbourne’s most sort-after locations.

Sierra’ will be comprised of a mix of 240 one, two and three-bedroom apartments over a single building of six levels. The development will feature 1,000 sqm of commercial and four retail tenancies, and residential amenities including residents’ dining room, courtyard garden, pool, BBQ and a large rooftop deck.

Notably, the project is well located in a sought-after precinct of Hawthorn, six km east of the Melbourne CBD and close to the vibrant Glenferrie Road shopping amenities and public transport options.

Brae Sokolski, Co-Founder MaxCap Group said: “We are delighted to be funding this high quality development and continue to actively fund credit-worthy projects, providing support to our clients at a critical time.”

John Yun Managing Director and CEO JD Group said: “MaxCap has partnered with us on previous construction and land acquisition projects. They have proven to be unwavering in their commitment to providing institutional scale credit to the commercial real estate sector.”

MaxCap Group, one of Australasia’s largest non-bank commercial real estate lenders and investment managers, announced today that it will provide NZD$30m of first mortgage funding to development and construction company Safari Group for a hotel and apartment building in Wellington.

The development finance will be used to deliver a mixed-use project known as ‘Ramada Wellington’ located on the corner of Vivian and Taranaki St, in Wellington’s CBD. It will comprise 72 hotel units with associated hotel facilities, 30 residential apartments, 14 visitor accommodation units, ground floor commercial and 29 car spaces.

MaxCap set up operations in New Zealand last year in a joint venture with Bayleys and investment advisory firm Forsyth Barr. The ‘Ramada Wellington’ is the first New Zealand project to be financed via MaxCap’s First Mortgage Construction Fund, an Australian-based investment fund established in 2018 to finance development projects.

Safari Group director Rob Neil says in line with Safari Group’s recent projects, ‘Ramada Wellington’ provides a mix of residential accommodation targeting owner-occupiers and strata titled hotel accommodation.

“It is suited to investors seeking a hands-off investment providing returns at higher levels than most standard residential property investments. Purchasers of the hotel units will receive a fixed rental income guaranteed by Marsden Group Limited, a well-regarded New Zealand based hotel operator. In addition, Marsden will operate the hotel under the Ramada brand which is part of the Wyndham international resort and hotel group.”

Mark Farrands, Chief Investment Officer for MaxCap New Zealand, said: “We are delighted to be funding this development, reinforcing our commitment to providing institutional-scale credit to the real estate sector in New Zealand. Safari Group is a highly regarded developer with strong relationships across the property and construction sectors.

“Safari has de-risked the project by partnering with proven operators in Marsden Group and creating a mix of product that we expect will perform well despite the current economic headwinds.”

Mr Farrands said that despite the current lack of international visitors and obvious challenges the New Zealand tourism sector is currently facing, the Wellington market had proven more resilient than most. He said the project, which is in the early stages of development, has attracted a good level of pre-sales which has continued through the various Covid-19 alert levels.

“At this stage of the project, Safari Construction (a subsidiary of Safari Group) currently has more than 100 workers on site and this number is growing as more facets of the project are being opened up, providing a boost to the local economy and supporting local trades.”