Point Cook project part of Lang's grand plan

Point Cook project part of Lang's grand plan
Maurice Dunlevy
April 12, 2007

ONLY five months after the sale of a $1.2 billion chunk of his property portfolio, billionaire Lang Walker laid more foundations yesterday for a third property empire.
With 20 projects already in Australia, his Walker Corp said yesterday that it had signed national retailers Coles, Target and Aldi to anchor a $100 million Point Cook Town Centre development in Melbourne's booming southwest.
The leases virtually guarantee the success of the 25,000sqm project, a joint venture with the state Government's VicUrban land authority and Mr Walker's largest single retail project.

Coles will occupy 4000sqm, Target 6153sqm and Aldi 1300sqm, while Pharmacy Select has already signed for a 1300sqm medical centre and pharmacy.

Seven years on from selling his publicly listed company to Australand for $245 million in 1999, the property magnate sold a substantial part of his private Walker Corp to publicly listed Mirvac for $1.12 billion in November, fuelling speculation the yachting-mad billionaire would sail off into the sunset.

But since then he has dispelled any doubts about his future, unveiling plans in February for a $2 billion master-planned community at Buckland Park, north of Adelaide, which is part of a grand plan to develop up to 30,000 residential sites in Australia in the next 10 to 15 years.

Within weeks, Mr Walker is expected to lodge development plans for an $800 million commercial development at the Melbourne Docklands in a joint venture with the Kouk Group at its Village Docklands waterfront precinct.

Mr Walker is also making his mark in bulky goods, already owning a home-maker centre at Bateman's Bay on the NSW south coast and soon to unveil plans for another bulky goods centre at South Morang in Melbourne's outer north.

All up, Walker Corp is understood to have 20 projects around the nation and, while many are still in the planning stage, approvals would given them a retail value of more than $12 billion.

His Point Cook retail facility will include about 80 speciality shops as well as an additional 5000sqm of commercial space and a small residential component.

Mr Walker is currently overseas but in a statement yesterday he said that the facility would incorporate the best features of the group's landmark retail centres - Sydney's Broadway Shopping Centre and Rhodes Waterside Shipping Centre.

Located 24km from Melbourne's centre, the Point Cook centre will be based on a strip shopping theme.

About 135,000 people are expected to live within a 10-minute drive of the centre.

It is between the Geelong Freeway and Port Phillip Bay and has become the main focus of Melbourne's booming southwest.

Babcock & Brown owns residential blocks worth more than $150 million at the nearby Sanctuary Lakes golfing estate and FKP controls prime Point Cook greenfields residential land acquired as part of its $284 million Wilbow takeover late last year.

At the end of last month ISPT No3 Fund invested about $50 million in a $250 million Sneydes Road residential project by developer Villawood Properties.