APH loses control over $1 billion Forest Hill office project
Chinese-backed developer APH Holding has lost control over a $1 billion Forest Hill commercial development just weeks before it was due to go on the market.
The private company has already put up about $100 million worth of property for sale in a bid to fund its development pipeline, including the completion of a high-rise medical services tower, Wellington Health, in Box Hill, Victoria.
Artist’s render of the 50,000-square-metre retail component of APH Holding’s City Park project in Forest Hill.
However, private lender MaxCap, which is also funding APH’s Wellington Health tower, has appointed KPMG as receiver-managers to Xin Hai City Investment (Forest Hill), the subsidiary company which owns the office complex in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
A Maxcap spokesperson said the company has appointed a receiver “to ensure it can maintain control of the current sales process”.
“Significant interest from potential purchasers has already been generated ahead of the official [expressions of interest] campaign launch. This is unrelated to the group’s Wellington Health asset in Box Hill, which MaxCap continues to fund, noting this project is on track and is expected to be completed imminently,” the spokesperson said.
APH Holding and its network of subsidiaries is owned by James Zhang and run by Johnson Zhang (no relation).
Johnson Zhang told the Australian Financial Review last month that the company would focus on finishing the projects it has underway – Wellington Health and a Box Hill apartment project, Irving Domain – an 115-unit apartment project financed by non-bank lender Wingate.
APH’s 5.8 hectare property at 353-383 Burwood Road, Forest Hill, was previously a sprawling office campus occupied by US technology giant Hewlett Packard. APH bought the property in 2017 for $91.5 million and later acquired neighbouring offices on 2.62ha for $45.8 million.
A $1 billion redevelopment, called City Park, was proposed for the land, with Woolworths secured as an anchor tenant for a new shopping centre.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Leon Ma, Daniel Wolman and Oliver Hay, along with JLL’s Josh Rutman, Jesse Radisich and MingXuan Li, are handling the sales process. Last month, it was tipped to be worth about $90 million. They declined to comment.
It is the second property which APH has lost to its bankers. A 1360 sq m site at 702-706 Station Street, Box Hill, earmarked for a Novotel Hotel, was repossessed by McGrathNicol in late June, acting for the mortgagee Metrics Credit Partners. It is for sale through the Cushman & Wakefield team, with a price quoted at between $13 million and $14 million.
APH’s move to list more property for sale comes as a wave of development sites hit the market, with owners no longer able to hold on to expensive properties or develop them amid rising building and materials costs.
In Footscray, the heritage-listed Kinnear’s Ropeworks Factory is back on the market with an approved development plan for more than 1200 dwellings.
R&F Property, the local subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Chinese developer Guangzhou R&F Properties, bought the factory in 2016 for $60 million and is selling it after completing one apartment tower. Cushman & Wakefield’s Joe Kairouz, Hamish Burgess and Ma are expecting more than $65 million for the sprawling 2.99 ha site at 124-180 Ballarat Road.
In North Melbourne, a 1.4 ha parcel of land at 59-101 Alfred Street, on the corner of Boundary Road, is coming to market under instruction from KordaMentha.
JLL’s Jesse Radisich, Josh Rutman, Jack Bergin and MingXuan Li have been appointed to sell that property.
APH Holding’s Wellington Health tower in Box Hill.Credit: Eamon Gallagher
In Box Hill, APH’s Wellington Health at 12-22 Wellington Road, near the Box Hill and Epworth hospitals, has reached “topping out” but requires a fit-out.
The $320 million tower, anchored by a lease with Eastern Health, is a 20-storey 30,000 sq m medical building, with high-tech healthcare facilities and a private club.
In late June, soon after its Box Hill hotel site was tipped into administration, APH put a CBD office and a South Melbourne hotel on the market.
The 11-storey Pinnacle office building at 440 Elizabeth Street is at the western end of the city near Queen Victoria Market, and could fetch up to $80 million to $85 million. Cushman & Wakefield is an expression of interest campaign for the building.
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