Luxcon’s Byron Bay foray hit by lender but Harry Triguboff grand-nephew will push on with project

The tough environment for property development has caught out a luxury Byron Bay ­project proposed by a company controlled by billionaire Harry Triguboff’s grand-nephew Ilya Melnikoff.

The tough environment for property development has caught out a luxury Byron Bay apartment ­project proposed by a company controlled by billionaire Harry Triguboff’s grand-nephew Ilya Melnikoff.

A high-end apartment scheme planned by his Luxcon operation has been put into the hands of financial controllers by high-profile financier MaxCap Group, which wants to sell the valuable land site.

The Byron Bay property was put under the control of FTI Consulting’s Joseph Hansell and David McGrath and the lender is confident it can get its money back.

“MaxCap is in a strong position with first mortgage security and expects full repayment. Given the prime Bryon Bay location and the benefit of development approval for a significant mixed-use project, MaxCap anticipates strong demand for the site,” the lender said in a statement.

But the former Los Angeles-based actor, who turned to development 15 years ago at the urging of his great uncle, the billionaire founder of the Meriton apartment empire, is determined to get the project back on track.

“We got caught out a little by the market and had some delays with this project, and MaxCap didn’t want to proceed with construction anymore, as intended,” Mr Melnikoff said. “We’re in the middle of refinancing options we’re confident in getting to; we’re still committed to the project.”

Ilya Melnikoff, head of property company Luxcon. Picture: Hollie Adams

A separate Luxcon project backed by MaxCap is running fine and talks are ongoing with the lender. “We’re still in active discussions with them,” Mr Melnikoff said. “We tried to refinance them out of the facility, but unfortunately we got caught out with the timing a little bit.”

Luxcon has sites along the eastern seaboard and is still expanding. “It’s not affecting any other sort of operations or anything like that,” Mr Melnikoff said. He remains bullish about Byron Bay.

“We’ve just finished the display and we ultimately are still intending to develop it,” he said. “We’re actively pursuing a couple of refinance opportunities for construction.”

MaxCap said last November it provided a $32m first mortgage land facility to assist Luxcon to ­acquire Byron Plaza. Luxcon plans to redevelop the site into a three-storey contemporary mixed-use building with luxury apartments and a large plaza to be known as The Bohemian.

Luxury touches will include a residents-only rooftop pool beach club and recreation facilities, and it will be prime real estate in the heart of Byron Bay.

Mr Melnikoff founded Luxcon in Sydney in 2008 and it has an in-house construction arm in NSW and Victoria. In the past decade, it has delivered luxury projects in NSW and recently expanded to Victoria and Queensland. The pipeline of high-end mixed-use projects is just under $1bn across Sydney, Melbourne and Gold Coast.

The Byron Bay apartment scheme was approved last year. But the developer last month put the project back on public exhibition after a redesign saw the number of units cut back from 54 to 44.

MaxCap and Luxcon have close ties. In 2021, the financier advanced a $76m first mortgage construction facility to Luxcon for the development of a high-profile apartment block known as The Address in East Melbourne.