M Group
The Two Sides of Leederville’s Newest Icon
In its latest apartment development in Leederville, boutique developer Match gives residents the option of living ‘streetside’ or ‘gardenside’. However, the building’s distinctive design is also a visual illustration of another side of Leederville and pays homage to the site’s former occupant; an infamous soft drink producer that became an iconic brand through the 40s, 50s and 60s.
M/24 is located on Carr Place, a short stroll to Leederville’s restaurants and cafe precinct. It comprises of only 39 modern apartments behind a living façade of shapes and colours, designed to reflect aerated bubbles, accentuated by a vertical garden.
Match Managing Director, Mr. Lloyd Clark, said Match’s approach to design is to draw from a location’s history and environment. He said in the case of Carr Place, the colorful past could not be overlooked, and the company engaged Architects ARM to realize the vision.
“We wanted to pay homage to the original use for the site with a contemporary take suited to the intentions of the Leederville Town Centre Master plan, which promotes diversity in design,” Mr. Clark said.
“Our Architects started developing an animated idea about aerated water itself and tried to replicate the incredibly intricate and complex action of bubbles moving in fluids. It was found that the formations reflected other structures, such as plants and animals, and the concept was evolved to integrate a façade of life and living – an appropriate symbol for the communal apartments.”
Former occupant, Golden West Aerated Water Company, was established around 1902 by Mr J.J. Wallis and produced soft drinks of various kinds, such as ginger beer, lemonade and kola beer. The factory was also used as a bottle capping facility for Pepsi Cola. In the 1980s, the company moved its production away from Leederville, and the two-storey factory building was demolished. The original ceramic Golden West bottles are now significant collectors’ items.
From the street, M/24’s soft-drink inspired lattice screen extends to the ground at the foyer entry, creating a sense of entering this bubble matrix.
The mix of one and two bedroom apartments are configured to maximise natural light and airflow through living areas and bedrooms. The balconies and outdoor entertainment areas are all connected to both living spaces and bedrooms.
As a strategic design feature, the property’s apartments have been developed to offer two attractive living options with differing outlooks.
“Not only will the ‘streetside’ apartments benefit from abundant northern light, they will provide an address that is active and dynamic. This kind of design also contributes to the character, identity and security of the street,” Mr. Clark continued.
“However, on the other side of the building, the façade faces Newcastle Street, with views towards the City skyline. These apartments overlook a linear communal area for more private, quieter hangout zone. It is a clever use of space that will no doubt appeal to potential residents and their lifestyle preferences.”
The apartments comprise of stylish interiors with quality fixtures and fittings, intentionally designed to create a blank canvas for residents to personalise and individualise.
All apartments feature undercover parking, air conditioning, lift access and security with prices starting from $450,000.
“Unique inner city boutique apartments continue to be in high demand, as evidenced by the strong sales of all our projects around Perth and Fremantle,” Mr. Clark said.
“This is without question a signature piece for Leederville, and one that people who love inner City living will be as proud of owning as we are in its design.”
Construction on M24 is planned to commence mid this year, with scheduled completion in mid 2016.
For more information visit M24apartments.com or contact Chadd Boucher on 0432 660 066.
Making a Statement in Leederville
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Making a Statement in Leederville
Perth’s most recognized boutique developer, Match, is making a bold architectural statement on its return to inner city Perth, with apartments designed for funky cutting-edge residents.
M/24 is the name given to the confident ‘work of art’ earmarked for Carr Street Leederville.
It comprises just 39 modern apartments behind a distinctive façade of shapes and colors, inspired by the collaged nature of the Leederville scene.
Match Managing Director, Mr. Lloyd Clark, said the company is very much at home in Perth’s inner city environment and has successfully introduced an appropriate response to the environment.
“What Match always does well is draw inspiration from the area. We work with architects that are handpicked to bring out the best boutique outcome for people who want more than just a place to live, but a real signature piece,” Mr. Clark said.
“We believe this has been achieved with M/24, and Leederville’s edgy environment has allowed us to think outside the box and create something that both distinctive and memorable.”
Match cut its teeth for over a decade in inner city Perth before spending some time in the Fremantle market. The company is renowned for identifying strategic development sites and has a track record of developing boutique signature developments. The Carr Street site was acquired in an off-market transaction, and Match called on Architects ARM to realize the vision; a recognized Melbourne firm with an office in Perth.
“This location is nothing short of awesome. It is quite literally on the doorstep of Leederville’s cafes, boutique shops and transport options,” Mr. Clark said.
“The building itself has a distinctive Melbourne feel and will absolutely add to the fabric of the area. It is an icon in the making.”
M/24 has been strategically designed with a mix of one and two bedroom apartments, with prices starting from $450,000.
“This development really stands out in a market where large-scale apartment projects seem to dominate. M24 will always be unique and it will always be boutique and, for investors and owner occupiers, this means it is more likely to result in strong growth and appreciate in value for years to come,” Mr. Clark continued.
The apartment’s stylish interiors with quality fixtures and fittings have been intentionally designed to create a blank canvas for residents to personalize and individualize.
All apartments feature undercover parking, air conditioning, lift access and security. Construction on M/24 is planned to commence mid this year, with scheduled completion in mid 2016.
Registrations of interest can be made by visiting M24apartments.com or contact Chadd Boucher on 0432 660 066.
Having the World at Your Feet
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Having the World at Your Feet
Match launches a new boutique apartment project in Mount Lawley.
The latest boutique creation in Match’s long line of successful apartment developments is located in close proximity to the inner city hustle and bustle, while within walking distance to everything Mount Lawley has to offer.
M/25 is a stylish and sophisticated residence located on the corner of Burt and Walcott Streets, Mount Lawley. It comprises only 30 one and two-bedroom secure apartments, each with the Match signature of high ceilings and large balconies.
Whereas Match is known for groundbreaking architecture, M/25 presents a more subtle design that will be quite at home in the Mount Lawley streetscape.
Match Managing Director, Mr. Lloyd Clark, said M/25 is not so much about standing out than it is merging into the style and culture that is already established.
“The people who want to live in Mount Lawley today want to immerse themselves in the culture, take advantage of the cafe scene and, more or less, have everything at their fingertips,” he said.
“One of the greatest aspects of M/25 is its location. It is literally within walking distance, from Hyde Park, Beaufort Street and the funky Angove Street, and just 3km from Perth’s CBD. It’s even a short bike ride to Mount Lawely’s ECU campus. This is a great investment for people who love the idea of having everything at their doorstep, but don’t want to live in the thick of things.”
The site for M/25 was identified by Match as having great lifestyle properties, and acquired in an off market transaction.
“As a company that places a lot of emphasis on location, we have been extremely successful in identifying and pursing development sites that fit the Match criteria,” Mr. Clark continues.
“In the case of Mount Lawley, not everyone wants to live on the high street and there is great value in living in a location that can provide the best of both worlds. People can choose to take advantage of Mount Lawley’s renowned inner city environment, or create a personal apartment haven when the door is closed.”
All apartment interiors have been intentionally designed with a neutral color schemes and select materials to create a blank canvas for residents to individualize.
They are equipped with quality fixtures and fittings and include air conditioning, central lift and onsite secure parking.
M25 has been introduced as a genuine boutique development by a reputed apartment developer. It sits in contrast to many large-scale apartment projects available in Perth and, as a result, offers strong capital growth potential as a unique, boutique and well-located product in limited supply.
Construction on M25 is planned to commence mid this year, with scheduled completion in mid 2016.
Registrations of interest can be made by visiting M25apartments.com or contact Chadd Boucher on 0432 660 066.
Fremantle Heirloom Receives Construction ‘Green Light’
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Fremantle Heirloom Receives Construction ‘Green Light’
Construction to convert Fremantle’s iconic old Dalgety Woolstores, otherwise known as ‘Fort Knox’, into spacious one and two-bedroom warehouse apartments, will commence as early as this week.
The $130 million development, renamed ‘Heirloom’, has exceeded rigorous sales targets with 70% of pre-sales achieved to enable commencement.
Boutique developer Match and joint-venture partner Sirona Capital are developing the 90-year old historic landmark that stretches along Queen Victoria Street in Fremantle’s east end. The project is considered the largest residential heritage renewal of its kind in WA.
Match Managing Direction, Lloyd Clark, believes while heritage renewals are complex, they are important, and the inherent value is immeasurable.
“Heirloom is unquestionably a significant project to Fremantle, both from a social and economic perspective. It is the City’s gateway and located on its important Port. Historically, it represents the grass roots of the City and where it all started. It would have been a tragedy to leave such a magnificent building dormant to deteriorate into a state of disrepair,” he said.
“Heritage renewals are often considered by banks to carry more financial risk and, as such, the banks are more cautious in lending and require higher pre-sales. We have worked tirelessly to meet the requirements of this project with full support from the City of Fremantle who recognise how much this project will bring to the local economy.”
Heirloom will introduce around 250 new residents to Fremantle in 183 apartments featuring impressive high ceilings, century old wooden beams and outlooks over the Fremantle Port, Queen Victoria Street and magnificent light-filled internal streetscapes. The development will create a café/bar activity centre to bring life into this area of Fremantle. The on-flow impact of this will benefit local business and add to the rates base of the City.
Sirona Capital managing director Matthew McNeilly said the partnership with Match to develop Heirloom was consistent with Sirona’s broader vision for its investment in Fremantle.
“There’s no doubt that Fremantle is poised for an exciting future and the start of construction at Heirloom is another milestone that’s worth celebrating,” Mr McNeilly said.
“Fremantle’s future as a residential and tourism destination is very positive.
The City of Fremantle has welcomed the news, which constitutes a key milestone in its strategy to achieve the broader revitalisation of Fremantle.
“In recent years, Fremantle Council has made some carefully designed planning changes in order to generate new life and growth in parts of the City that have remained stagnant for too long. That hard work has laid the foundation for a more socially and economically vibrant Fremantle by delivering a lift in the number of people who will live, work, shop and socialise in the heart of our city,” said acting Fremantle Mayor Josh Wilson.
“Since the adoption of our award-winning Economic Development Strategy in 2011 there has been a steady stream of new projects in Fremantle as part of an investment pipeline in excess of $1 billion, which includes a healthy mix of residential, commercial, and hospitality development.
“Heirloom is a project that is particularly close to our heart because it shows how sensitively restoring heritage buildings for modern use can have significant commercial and community benefits.
“We congratulate Match and Sirona for bringing this project to life and we welcome the Heirloom development as an early installment in a fantastic new wave of projects that are already built, under construction, or approved for construction in Freo,” Mr Wilson said.
Construction of Heirloom is being undertaken by national top tier construction company, Built; a company that has worked on some of the country’s most high profile heritage projects, including the Old Treasury Buildings (WA), QT Sydney (NSW), Queen Victoria Building refurbishment (NSW), Art Gallery of NSW (NSW), and the Melbourne GPO and H&M flagship store (Vic). Heirloom is Built’s fourth significant heritage renewal in WA, following on from Perth Mint, Trinity Arcade and the Old Treasury Buildings.
The Heirloom renewal is designed by project Architect, Dominic Snellgrove from Cameron Chisholm Nicol (CCN), who is a recognised Australian leader in integrated architectural and recipient of Australia’s most prestigious architectural award, the AIA Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture.
Completion of Heirloom is expected in 2017.
Media contacts:
Sirona Capital
Matthew McNeilly – 9212 1200
Mike Groves – 0427 065 551
Match
Lloyd Clark – 9324 3855
Amanda Fay – 0408 807 870
About Match
Match Pty Ltd was established in 2001 and quickly emerged as specialist in developing projects that rejuvenate the urban landscape and enhance arterial streetscapes.
With a strong ethos for creating spaces people want to live and work in, the company is today recognised for a range of quality projects and developmental ingenuity.
While Match is best known for its work in heritage renewals and creating environmentally sustainable outcomes, it boasts an extensive portfolio of iconic commercial and residential environments.
This vertically integrated organisation works to a seamless development model that provides an integrated service package to clients.
Its success has been unprecedented, as the company remains committed to its core values of quality and sustainable design.
About Sirona Capital
Sirona Capital is an independent private equity firm that is focused on investing in the real estate, natural resources, and energy sectors. Possessing a unique combination of financing and industry expertise and access to long-dated local and global capital, we develop unique financing solutions for special situations investments.
Sirona Capital has established a substantial real estate platform, comprising three core business areas:
- Private Equity – sourcing large scale special situations opportunities for major pools of private equity capital;
- Credit Securitisation – providing higher yield credit finance for investment and development opportunities (securitised by a global investment bank); and
- Syndicated Investments – managing development and/or investment syndicates for pre-qualified, wholesale family office and high net worth investors.
Since inception in 2009, Sirona Capital has become one of Western Australia’s most active real estate investors. In the past 18 months alone, Sirona Capital has committed capital into real estate projects with an estimated end value in excess of A$900 million.
About Heirloom history
Heirloom was originally part of a group of wool stores that occupied the entire street block. It was developed after the Australian Government worked to build the Australian wool industry to one that required extensive stockpiling.
Initially designed in 1922 and built the following year, a northeast wing was added in 1927 along the full length of Beach and Queen Victoria Streets. In 1942 a single story extension was built along Beach Street.
In 1944, the three storey structure and extension were raised an entire level resulting in the signature saw tooth roof structure, and in 1952, one bay extension across the rear single storey building was added. However, the main structure and sunroof was added between 1950 and 1952.
Apartment Living Feature Q&A
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Apartment Living Feature Q&A
Comments by Lloyd Clark, Managing Director of Match
How is the apartment market performing at the moment?
The market is in a state of divide; on one side there are a number of large-scale apartment projects, many of which are backed by first-time developers looking to maximise land availability and density opportunities.
People are correct in being concerned about value proposition of these projects. Many of them will struggle to achieve the required pre sales and, therefore, will not go ahead.
Match sits on the other side of the fence. We have stayed true to our grass roots and focused on unique and well-located sites for boutique projects.
Developments like ours will continue to attract strong buyer interest. Where large-scale projects are currently in limbo, we have commenced construction of a number of new apartment projects and in the process of releasing more.
Have sales slowed in the last 12 months? If so, what do you think this is caused by? I.e. resources industry downturn, lower consumer confidence, drop in population growth, investors dropping off, oversupply etc.
Quite the opposite! Match has seen an increase in interest for its development investment funds from investors diversifying their investment from the resource/mining sector into ‘bricks and mortar”.
In fact, the last few funds have been substantially oversubscribed and, contrary to some reports that are skewed by the influx of large-scale projects, buyer interest remains strong from owner-occupiers as well as investors for boutique quality apartments projects in great location.
What kinds of apartments are most in demand? I.e. one, two-bed, communal facilities, inner-city, smaller complexes etc.
The boutique feel is paramount! Apartment projects comprising of 30-40 apartments are attracting the most interest, and they need to be in great locations that provide an abundance of amenity at the doorstep – which is really what apartment living is all about. Demand remains strong for both 1 and 2 bed apartments.
What kind of buyers are being attracted to buying apartments? I.e. investors, single professionals etc.
We’re seeing a good mix of owner-occupiers with young professional couples who don’t want to compromise their lifestyle by moving out to the large land estates in the ‘burbs’. We’re also seeing increasing interest from switched on investors who recognise that the apartment market is following world trends in being an emerging growth sector and, therefore, providing long term growth and strong returns.
There were a record number of apartments under construction in the year to Sept 2014, according to the ABS, with many of these projects now being finalised. Is there an under/oversupply of apartments at the moment? Do you expect there to be an over/undersupply in the next few years as projects being advertised now come to fruition?
There will never be an oversupply as apartment development is largely restricted by the Australian banking sector. Banks generally require 50-60% pre sales for a developer to fund a project. Therefore projects under construction are largely sold out and new projects in the market will only get out of the ground with sufficient pre sales. If there’s no demand, the project simply won’t proceed.
Feel free to add any extra info.
In the current market conditions, buyers need to do their homework to make sure that an investment will remain unique enough to retain long-term value. They should think long term and consider whether large-scale cookie-cutter apartment developments, where apartments that are hard to differentiate, are going to have good resale potential, particularly if more than one is on the market at the same time.
Buyers should also look into the developer’s credentials and make sure they have a strong track record – buying apartments ‘off-the-plan’ is only a risk when you are not 100% assured of a quality outcome.
Development Approval for Mary Street Como
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Development Approval for Mary Street Como
Approval has been given to proceed with a 40-apartment development on Mary Street Como, which is earmarked to attract significant buyer interest following the over subscription of Match’s latest development fund for the acquisition of this property.
The Mary Street site was acquired through an off-market transaction in the tightly held suburb of Como. It is located in a quiet side street off Preston Road, in an environment that has not seen any new apartment product for years.
Managing Director of Match, Mr. Lloyd Clark, believes the early investor interest reflects a limited supply of opportunities in Como and a demographic shift that will effectively increase demand for apartment living in this area.
“Surrounding amenity is important in apartment living and, in the case of Mary Street, it is substantial. When combined with an established population likely to be downsizing within the same area, the significance of our development in an environment of limited supply is likely to have an impact on sales,” Mr. Clark said.
“Boutique product in well-located environments will always be in demand. However, the high medium house price in this area makes the apartments an even more attractive proposition and downsizing option.”
The apartment development is designed by Architect Dominic Snellgrove of Cameron Chisholm Nicol and is scheduled for a marketing launch in the second half of 2015.
“While Como is a new area for Match to be working in, it has been in our radar for over a decade,” Mr. Clark said.
“Our plans for the development are extremely boutique and carry all the charm and sophistication of the area. With this, together with our track record in developing quality apartments, we are confident of a successful sales program.”
The development is walking distance to shops, offices and a cinema, as well as metres from parkland and the pedestrian bridge access to the riverbank.
Apartment prices will range from $450,000 for one-bedroom apartments and $595,000 for two-bedroom apartments.