Real estate-focused rich lister Robin Khuda has placed big bets on the revival of St Kilda’s struggling retail strips in inner Melbourne after snapping up about $35 million of property on Fitzroy and Acland Streets, including shops, apartments and a trendy bar.

Mr Khuda, the founder of data centre operator AirTrunk, has amassed a huge east coast property portfolio after he and co-investors Goldman Sachs and Sixth Street Partners sold 88 per cent of the business to Macquarie’s infrastructure arm in April last year.