Mitsubishi Estate and Lendlease partner in Melbourne residential project

Mitsubishi Estate Asia has entered into its second partnership with Australia’s Lendlease in an AUD400m (€275m) residential apartment project in Melbourne.

Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Estate Asia and Lendlease will each hold 50% in the 44-storey East Tower, the first residential building in a major urban regeneration project, Melbourne Quarter.

Shojiro Kojima, managing director of Mitsubishi Estate Asia, said it is the company’s first investment in Melbourne.

Kojima described East Tower as a project that will offer “refined apartment living in close proximity to the shops, galleries and restaurants for which the city of Melbourne is renowned”.

Mitsubishi Estate Asia and Ping An Real Estate in December 2016 signed up to back Lendlease’s AUD1.5bn Circular Quay Tower project in Sydney’s central business district.

In a statement today, Lendlease’s chief executive officer for property, Kylie Rampa said: “The joint venture with Mitsubishi Estate Asia demonstrates the strength of our plans to revitalise the western end of Flinders Street into a new and thriving residential and commercial neighbourhood.”

East Tower is Lendlease’s largest residential tower in Australia – offering views over Melbourne central business district, the Yarra River and Port Phillip Bay. Construction began earlier this month.

It is one of three residential towers approved for the Melbourne Quarter site, with almost 1,700 apartments proposed in total. The developer has received approval for almost AUD1bn worth of new apartments across three towers at Melbourne Quarter.

It forms part of an AUD2.5bn urban regeneration project in Melbourne’s Docklands, a precinct which is fast becoming an extension of Melbourne’s central business district.

Commercial and residential towers are to be developed, alongside three public green spaces.

Work is under way on the precinct’s first office building, One Melbourne Quarter, due for completion by September 2018.

In March, Lendlease received approval for the so-called centerpiece of the project, a AUD500m commercial office tower, will be known as Two Melbourne Quarter.