Seniors Housing & Healthcare Trends

MELBOURNE: A national developer wants to construct a 33-storey, 110m skyscraper with 135 apartments, 24-hour reception, internal gym and rooftop restaurant with external elevators.

Alcoy Investments plans to spend $64m building Zephyr Tower on the corner of McMinn and Manton streets, next door to the recently completed Luxxe apartments, the CBD’s first residential apartment development in seven years.

Alcoy Investments chief executive Max Grant said Zephyr would be built in six stages, with contingencies in place to cover for Covid-19, cyclones or even a Gulf War and the roof could be applied at any one of those stages.

If given the development green-light, the ground floor would be retail including grocery, café, co-working and cosmetic spaces below an internal carpark, with residential accommodation beginning at level nine.

There would be a six-metre inset to the residential apartments, four sub-penthouses, two primary penthouses and the two-level rooftop restaurant,

Prices will start at $685,000 to $825,000 for main residential, $900,000 for sub-penthouses and $1.5m for penthouse suites. A social media page has been launched and a website will launch soon.

If it goes ahead, it will be the first time in more than a decade that a private interstate developer has invested in Darwin and a much-needed response to calls for more private-sector investment in the Territory.

Mr Grant secured the corner block from veteran Darwin developer John Alexopolous, who had previously secured approvals at the site, and Alcoy’s redesign leveraged off the approved plans “to further enhance the exterior and accommodate for Darwin’s much-needed housing crisis.”

The developer said Zephyr Tower would acknowledge Alexopolous’ commitment to Darwin and the site.

Alcoy Investments will secure title later this month and teamed with Darwin-based builder Michael Christofis, he said he would waste no time, targeting project completion by November 2028.

He said a strong local contingent had been involved with Zephyr, which was designed by NT architects Savvas P Savvas in partnership with Dolan Civil construction.

“We’ve got our ducks in a row,” he said. “We’ve got our trades, we’ve got our contracts with our builders and we were signing contracts just last Friday to satisfy banking conditions precedence.”

Land settlement is expected on May 18 with civil works to amalgamate blocks six and eight into a single entity at 8 Manton Street.

A golden shovel event is planned for May 22, followed by a gala ball the following evening.

Mr Grant acknowledged that with the exception of long-time developer Leo Athanasiou’s adjacent Luxxe apartments, banks have been reluctant to commit to residential apartment developments in Darwin’s CBD due to prohibitive costs and potentially negative returns.

He said he was in constructive discussions with a manager at one of the local big-four banks and that finance had been secured for a take out with the initial lender, providing 12 month conditions precedence is satisfied “which at this stage is promising”.

“This in turn should provide further confidence to other builders and developers to access there own funding with the big four in Darwin.

“While the path to settlement has been demanding, we are happy we’re approaching this important milestone,” Mr Grant said.

“How did we overcome the financial? We always use private lenders, and we’re not limiting ourselves to the Darwin market. We have our own investor group with buyers from Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne.”

Pre-sales from the previous project were annulled, but Mr Grant said he was confident that following the public announcement and social media campaign, 60 per cent of apartments would be pre-sold by week’s end.

“I’m pretty confident that in the next four to six weeks, we could have it all sold – however special stock will be retained for local buyers,”

Mr Christoff said the job would attract a workforce in the hundreds across the forecast 30-month construction phase.

He said the local trades were “loving it”. “The joinery package will be local service, all the local electricians, all the local gyprockers, all those trades are 100 per cent behind this.,” he said. “Strong support from long time Darwin consultants and trades have shown this development is much needing for our local community.”

At 100m and 33-storeys, Evolution on Gardiner is Darwin’s tallest building.