CSIRO Sells Highett Site for $90m

One of Melbourne’s largest infill development sites has been picked up for $90 million by local developer Wolf Group.

The 9.34-hectare rectangular site, located at 37 Graham Road in the south-eastern bayside suburb of Highett, was sold with the scope for a future large-scale town house and apartment development.

The site, positioned between the Nepean Highway and Port Phillip Bay, is located immediately south of the recently completed Woolworths Shopping Centre, Highett Train Station and Highett Road retail strip.

Home to former CSIRO laboratories, the site has been sold with vacant possession and clear of all building improvements.

Following plans to close the site in 2011, CSIRO subsequently undertook a $30 million cleanup, demolishing all buildings and remediating the land to remove asbestos contaminated soil.

Following completion of the remediation works earlier this year, CSIRO relinquished 3 hectares of the site to the community for conservation and an additional 1 hectare to the Bayside City Council for public open space.

The combined 4 hectares have since been earmarked for a new public park under an agreement with the local council.

Colliers International’s Trent Hobart, Peter Bremner, Hamish Burgess marketed and sold the property on behalf of global science agency CSIRO along with Urbis transaction manager Matthew Cleary.

“These infill opportunities are increasingly rare,” Hobart said.

“History has proven that fortune favours those developers who invest in significant scale middle ring land acquisitions, such as Mirvac in Doncaster and Frasers in Burwood.

“We expect this acquisition to be similarly successful in this up and coming residential precinct.”

The site will now be re-zoned to Residential Growth Zone and Development Plan Overlay—Schedule 2.

Earlier this month, CSIRO outlined plans to build a state-of-the-art facility at the Western Sydney Aerotropolis.

The proposed facility will house up to 450 employees across 18,000 square metres and will feature collaborative workshops and modern, flexible laboratories to support the delivery of cutting-edge science and technology.