By Carolyn Webb and Simon Johanson
Beloved Kew supermarket Leo’s will be turned into housing in a joint venture by a luxury developer and billionaire James Packer, while investors who bought Leo’s Heidelberg site have yet to reveal what will replace the gourmet store.
Foodies have been stocking up at Leo’s supermarkets for decades, and many were saddened to learn on Wednesday that the outlets in Kew and Heidelberg would close at the end of next year.
Luxury developer Orchard Piper confirmed on Thursday that it bought the huge Leo’s block in Princess Street, Kew, and that Packer would be an investor and joint-venture partner through his company NPACT.
Leo’s Fine Food and Wine in Kew will become luxury housing.Credit: Joe Armao
Another developer, Banco Group, confirmed it had bought the Leo’s Burgundy Street site in Heidelberg.
Orchard Piper, which develops upmarket homes and apartments in Toorak, St Kilda Road and East Melbourne, plans to construct a “retail and residential offering” on the Kew site of Leo’s, to be designed by well-known architect firm Wardle.
The new building will also include shops and a fine-produce offering.
“Orchard Piper director Luke McKie and Wardle’s director, John Wardle, are proud Kew residents and are committed to using their local insight to meaningfully contribute to the revitalisation of Kew Junction,” the company said.
Leo’s supermarket in Heidelberg has been bought by Banco Group as a “passive investment”.Credit: Joe Armao
Banco Group manager director Mario Lo Giudice said the Leo’s Heidelberg supermarket site was a “passive investment”.
“We do not intend to make any changes,” Lo Giudice said, but he declined to say what would happen after Leo’s closes its doors.
Asked if any apartments were planned, he said: “We are investors, and we bought it as a passive investment to hold, as an investment property. Full stop.”
Family-owned business Le Max Group, which operates the Leo’s stores, confirmed on Wednesday it had sold both properties and would close the supermarkets at the end of 2026.
Le Max Group still owns the Hartwell Leo’s supermarket in Glen Iris.
Property records show that Rose Blake, who founded Leo’s with her late husband Leo, owns the site at 2 Summerhill Road, which was purchased for $2.66 million in 2006.
Le Max Group still runs Maxi Foods supermarket at Ferntree Plaza in Upper Ferntree Gully, but doesn’t own the land. Ritchies leases that site to Metcash, which subleases it to Le Max.
Ritchies Supermarkets property manager Mal Cameron said Le Max, which has traded in Ferntree Gully since 1994, was expected to continue operating there despite Ritchies buying the property from the previous landlord, the Angelatos family, a year ago.
Brendan Blake, son of Rose and Leo, said he was sad about the sale of the Kew and Heidelberg properties. “The legacy of Leo’s stores is quite grand,” he said.
Brendan, who runs his own supermarkets in Castlemaine, Daylesford and Ballarat and is not connected to the Melbourne stores, said his father was “always innovative, always seeking out new ideas, and going overseas and seeing what other people were doing”.
“The Kew store is a representation of what he envisaged, which was different from the chain stores,” he said.
Brendan said the Blakes bought the Heidelberg property in the mid-1990s. The Kew site, bought in the mid-1980s and just sold, includes the car park, the supermarket, an adjacent row of shops, and houses in nearby streets. “It’s a huge parcel of land,” Brendan said.
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