Time and Place, Corsair’s $500m Alphington Project Greenlit

A mammoth mixed-use project for the Alphington paper mill site has been approved by the City of Yarra council.

Developers Time and Place and Corsair Capital filed plans in April, 2022 for the 20,660sq m site at 640 Heidelberg Road, Alphington.

The site is part of a larger 16.5ha precinct and was bought from Alphington developer Guy Nelson for $48 million earlier in 2022.

Amended plans for the site include six build-to-rent towers with 632 apartments atop a podium with 25,000sq m of retail, co-working spaces and community facilities. 

There will also be 150 affordable housing units, medical centre, gym, food and beverage premises, childcare centre and primary education centre within the project.

Three rounds of amendments were made to the original plans to finalise the space available for each use, appropriate license permissions and the location of the community facilities.

Original plans for the project were submitted to council in 2017 by Nelson. 

▲ The 16.5ha precinct is on the site of a paper mill dating back to 1919.

The project has an expected end value of $500 million.

Non-bank lender Corsair Capital is run by Michael and Andrew Buxton’s son and nephew, Steve Buxton.

Michael Buxton is listed as its founder and a board member along with Steve, Ben and Josh Buxton.

The Buxton family are well-known rich-listers and developers in Melbourne and their company MAB Corp has developed several projects across the city, most notably in the Docklands area.

▲ The 16ha parcel of land on Heidelberg Road has been called one of the best mixed-use redevelopment sites in Melbourne.

Developer Glenvill is working on the rest of the 16.5ha precinct known as Yarra Bend and plans 2500 houses and apartments plusa 20,000sq m of retail space. 

It will also have a primary school at the northern end of the precinct.

The site is about 7km north-east of Melbourne’s CBD and has nearly 300m of Yarra River frontage.