Inside the billionaire’s property development spree in Melbourne
While James Packer is busy soaking up the Mediterranean sun, the city that left scars on the billionaire continues to rake in huge sums of money for him from multimillion-dollar high-end residential and commercial projects.
It’s been four years since Packer sold the Crown casino to private equity for $8.9 billion; This agreement led Packer to say that former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews “almost ruined my life”.
However, Packer, who was estimated to be worth $5.25 billion at last count, has remained lukewarm on Melbourne, turning land into at least five multimillion-dollar commercial and residential projects in the city through an arm of his property empire NPACT.
So, as the billionaire’s $288 million custom superyacht IJE navigates wintry construction sites in the waters off the French Riviera, sturdy craftsmen are hard at work on the tycoon’s behalf.
NPACT, which launched in 2022, was previously run by former Crown Resorts executive Todd Nisbet, who died suddenly of a brain aneurysm last year.
When Nisbet approached his former boss with the NPACT offer shortly after the sale of Crown, Packer’s private company, Consolidated Press Holdings, quickly joined the offer.
“Todd was a star,” Packer said. “He was my best employee at Crown and he continued that excellence at NPACT.”
Following Nisbet’s death in October, Packer manager Lawrence Myers took over the top job.
Having influence and keeping friends in high places have long been hallmarks of Packer’s four decades in business, and his real estate development is similarly progressing.
A crane looms over construction of a $100 million property at Balwyn-branded Maleela Rise in Melbourne’s east, scheduled for completion in the second quarter of next year.
NPACT branding is displayed on hoardings guarding a large hole in the ground where a four-storey complex of 41 homes will rise, but Packer’s involvement in the project is otherwise inconspicuous.
The project is aimed at wealthy downsizers, with amenities you’d expect to see at a luxury hotel (concierge services, a club lounge with a bar, a library and a wellness center with a gym and saunas).
In nearby Toorak, another NPACT-led luxury apartment project is under construction, with local officials lending a helping hand to the site team for the $400 million development, Packer-backed developer Orchard Piper.
In April, Stonnington Council closed one of the local shopping precinct’s car parks and public land on Carters Avenue will be used exclusively by Orchard Piper as construction progresses.
The council has leased the site to NPACT for three years to facilitate the construction of One Toorak Place, comprising 44 luxury apartments above a mix of commercial suites, retail space and hospitality precinct. The council will receive approximately $345,000 for use of the parking lot in fiscal year 2027; That’s small change for the billionaire and his wealthy investors.
Packer, a suburb in Malvern, is eyeing a $20 million site with plans for a 40-apartment development also aimed at the downsizing wealthy.
In Kew, a businessman is pressing ahead with a controversial project for a $215 million, 18-storey apartment and retail precinct that is being fast-tracked by the state government. Project with 194 flats Located at the former site of Leo’s Fine Food and Wine, the construction has received serious backlash from locals who claim that its height exceeds height limits in the area.
But height has posed no problem in Melbourne’s CBD, where Packer and his investors are nearing completion of a $200 million commercial redevelopment project of the historic Hotel Lindrum on Flinders Street, which is slated to be transformed into a 27-storey office tower.
Elsewhere, in the Geelong suburb of Corio, known for being home to one of the country’s most prestigious grammar schools but one of the city’s most economically challenged areas, NPACT is on the verge of completing a $50 million affordable housing project called Edenville.
The fight to get Edenville approved took more than two years to secure for Packer, who owns luxury homes in cities around the world including Los Angeles, Sydney, Cabo San Lucas and Buenos Aires.
Work is currently ongoing. The price guide for three- and four-bedroom homes ranges from $700,000 to $800,000. Gersh Investment Partners, chaired by former ABC director Joe Gersh, is a consortium member of the project as well as the Maleela Rise project in Balwyn.
Alongside the 10-hectare storage project in Clayton and residential projects in Sydney, the move into real estate is proving to be quite lucrative for Packer and his supporters.
The billionaire was contacted for comment on his portfolio of developing development projects in Melbourne and Geelong but did not respond.
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