[+] Twist in the Tale: The Rise of Ambitious Beulah

“Sometimes you’ve just got to be tough and just do it.” Not bad words of fatherly advice to have ringing in your ears as you embark on developing Australia’s tallest and arguably most ambitious skyscraper. Albeit, they were uttered by Malaysian developer Datuk Teh Kean Ming a few years ago—well before his daughter put her foot on a site in Melbourne’s Southbank for a 101-storey mini-metropolis. And long before the Victorian capital went from one of the world's most liveable to most locked down cities. Not to mention the construction sector's ensuing profitless boom and myriad other crippling challenges. Back then, Adelene Teh—freshly graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Masters of Architecture—and her now husband Jiaheng Chan were struggling to secure sites for their property development start-up Beulah International. “We were bidding on quite a few sites but didn’t get one for a while,” Teh says. “My father has always been very supportive, he’s a mentor and guidance to us … we can always be very real and transparent with him on the problems that we’re facing.” Clearly, his words of wisdom did the job—and they have been reverberating ever since. “We were like ‘Wow, ok!’ and so we just took the risk,” Teh recalls. ▲ Beulah co-founder and executive director Adelene Teh. It paid off and within a decade Beulah has emerged at the forefront of a new evolution in skyscrapers, reimagining the Melbourne skyline with approved plans for a 270,000sq m vertical village of dual twisting “greenscrapers”. Given the green light by the Victorian government in April 2020 as the onset of Covid gripped the country, a post-pandemic sales rush has led construction of the $2.7-billion Sth Bnk by Beulah project on the city fringe to be brought forward. It is now due to break ground as early as mid-2023. “Our sales timeline has shortened … so we’re now preparing to move into the construction phase and have already started to do some geotechnical testing on site,” Teh says. Within four months of being launched to the market, $600-million worth of apartments had been bought off-the-plan and, she adds: “It’s still going strong”. But perhaps the biggest twist in the Sth Bnk tale is that 80 per cent of the sales have been to local buyers and mostly owner-occupiers—signalling quite the opposite of a Covid-induced exodus from major city centres. “That’s amazing for a project like this,” says Teh, noting closed borders had prevented an intial overseas roadshow to lure international buyers. “But it has shown there is that strong demand from the locals. “Obviously during Covid a lot of people have had a tree change and a sea change but I think ultimately you still cannot replace that CBD life—the entertainment, the buzz, the culture, the food that the city offers, especially in a place like Melbourne.” ▲ A render of a tailored residence in the project: Pre-sales for Sth Bnk have surpassed $600 million and are continuing, Teoh says. In April, stage one of Sth Bnk was a sell-out in a single day—setting a new benchmark by clocking $400 million in sales, mostly of larger two and three-bedroom units as well as some buyers merging adjoining apartments to create super-sized residences. Of the project’s five sub-penthouses, so far three have been sold for prices up to $35 million—making them Melbourne’s most expensive apartments. “There’s more people who are looking at this level of product,” Teh says. “And we’ve had a few inquiries already about the penthouse—the top one—but we haven’t launched it yet. “A lot of these purchasers are global citizens or travel interstate or overseas a lot for business, or expats coming back to Melbourne.” The tallest of the two Sth Bnk towers will reach 356m—surpassing the Gold Coast’s Q1 supertower (322.5m) as the nation’s tallest building—while the second 63-storey tower will rise to 275m. And although the project will give Teh some family bragging rights over her property magnate father in terms of building height, she is quick to point out that it pales in comparison to the scale of some of the projects—“like a new city”—he developed across his four decades in the industry. “Growing up in a city like Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, going on site visits with him, that’s where I was exposed to and became quite intrigued with the impact property developers have on cities,” she says. ▲ Sth Bnk’s penthouse has not been launched to the market yet. “I saw first-hand how development can really change the cityscape and how it elevates people’s lives. “A place that’s kind of barren and where crime happens, for example—put a good development there that has great urban design and planning outcomes, it instantly lifted the whole area. It became a lot safer, a place where the public could meet and enjoy. “That really resonated with me and so, like my father, I’m also really passionate and driven by the responsibility that we have to elevate people’s lives to improve livability, the community and the impact that has on the city.” In 2017, when the site of the old BMW dealership at the corner of City Road and Southbank Boulevard was put on the market, Teh knew it was an opportunity she could not pass up and Beulah struck a $101-million deal with the German car maker. “I saw the leaflet, looked at the location and size of the site and I knew this was an opportunity to do something different that would truly elevate the community, provide amenity to all the workers, the residents and revitalise Southbank.” An international design competition followed and UNStudio and Cox Architecture’s “green spine” scheme with an eye-catching twisting sculptural form was chosen by the jury from six shortlisted proposals. It comprises 789 apartments, 50,000sq m of office space, 30,000sq m of retail, a 202-key Four Seasons hotel , wellness precinct and cultural venue to be created by France’s famed Centre Pompidou atop a seven-level podium capped by a public park. ▲ Renders of Sth Bnk by Beulah. As well, it features a 5.5km vertical garden— touted as being the world’s tallest —stretching from the street level to the tops of the of both towers culminating in rooftop green spaces dubbed “gardens of the future”. With an eye for good design, Teh—who once considered a career as a fashionista—reveals there was some “very robust discussion” among the jury panel in deciding the winning proposal. “We actually delayed the announcement because we couldn’t come to an agreement,” she says. So, was she happy with the final decision? “It was definitely one of my favourites,” she says with a smile. “All of them had their own merits and kind of pros and cons … [and] everyone on the panel had input to make sure that we were choosing the best outcome for Melbourne, not just from the developer’s eyes. “So, yeah, I’m really happy with the result and definitely no regrets ... as my father always says—stay humble, keep learning, keep growing.” And when the going gets tough, the tough get going. You are currently experiencing The Urban Developer Plus (TUD+), our premium membership for property professionals. Click here to learn more.

[+] Twist in the Tale: The Rise of Ambitious Beulah

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