Bridgehill acquired 105-115 Portman Street, Zetland

Bridgehill Group knocked out big – gun developers including Mirvac, Harry Triguboff’s Meriton Apartments and William O’Dwyer’s Ralan Group to acquire 105 – 115 Portman Street, Zetland from Waverley Council.

At least two of the under-bidders are understood to have been prepared to stump up about $75m for the 1.79ha site near Green Square Station – at least $15m less than Bridgehill’s aggressive bid.

Bridgehill managing director Yi Bin Xu expects to build up to 780 apartments on the Zetland site, and is continuing to scour Sydney for more apartment sites.

“The market is booming in that area, the market is good,” Mr Xu said. “All our (residential) projects are 100 per cent sold.”

Bridgehill’s latest residential development, 132 units at Arthur Street, Milsons Point, was attracting strong inquiry before construction commences in December. “People are looking for quality apartments … if they are very good stock,” Mr Xu said.

Bridgehill paid Australand an aggressive $49m for the Arthur Street, Milsons Point office block, which will be converted into apartments.

It has also just bought a site at Kent Street, Mascot, near Sydney airport, for a 450-unit development. Construction is expected to start in 2015 on the Mascot project, which has a gross end value of $330m.

“We are definitely always looking for more sites,” Mr Xu said. While Bridgehill was concentrating its development activity in NSW, Mr Xu said that if he found a good site in another city he would also look at it.

Bridgehill is building about 250 apartments a year, but Mr Xu wants to double that output within 18 months.

Several other major development groups are planning apartment towers, with Meriton increasing its annual supply of apartments from 1500 in the past year to 2500 over the next 12 months.

Meanwhile at Zetland, Bridgehill hopes to start construction on Portman Street by the end of next year and expects to deliver the project, which has a potential gross floor area of 65,500sq m under the Green Square Town Centre development control plan, in two stages.

Bridgehill has also been active in the Sydney suburb of Rhodes, where its initial foray into development came after it acquired a site from a venture between Brookfield Asset Management and Trafalgar Property Group, and it has since picked up another nearby site, completing the two projects that totalled 400 units.

The group’s Azure Waterfront project at Rhodes included 159 apartments across four low-rise buildings and was priced at up to about $1m for three-bedroom units. Bridgehill’s nearby 205- apartment Monaco complex included three-bed townhouses for up to $1.3m.

Bridgehill’s experience includes high-end projects elsewhere in the world. It is understood Bridgehill is working on a project for a 65-storey tower in China’s booming Shenzhen.

Originally published by The Australian