Wyndham councillor Intaj Khan could make about $23 million in just over six months from the sale of a large block of land.
Cr Khan is selling a 24.6-hectare site in Rockbank that is designated for a major town centre plus apartments and townhouses.
Price expectations are understood to be about $50 million for the rectangular land parcel at 886-940 Leakes Road which Mr Khan and a fellow Melbourne investor, Kurminder Singh, acquired in October last year from Taiwanese investors for $15.95 million.
The site is part of a new suburb called Rockbank North – approved in 2012 – and is next to Mirvac’s top-selling $2.5 billion Woodlea estate. Just over 19 hectares is designated for a major town centre that could support 160,000 square metres of shops, offices and hotels, and with a 3.7-hectare portion for apartments and townhouses.
Cr Khan, through his Western Institute of Technology, owns 70 per cent of the site and Mr Singh the remaining 30 per cent.
In September last year – a month before he settled on the Rockbank site – Victoria’s Local Government Investigations and Compliance (LGIC) Inspectorate filed nine charges against Cr Khan of which six related to his failure to disclose a shareholding or position in a number of companies and two related to a failure to submit ordinary returns. None of the charges relate to the Rockbank land.
One of the charges, relating to a failure to disclose property holdings within the municipal district of the council, has since been dropped. Cr Khan is contesting the charges.
The site’s selling agents, Frank Nagle and Andrew Egan of Biggin & Scott Land, said Cr Khan recognised the development of the land required the expertise of a major retail developer and, given that nearby development was quickly reaching his site, he was now prepared to sell.
“Very few offerings of an entire town centre are ever released to the market; the only one released in the state was the Armstrong Street Town Centre that was bought by Welsh Group in 2016,” Mr Egan said.
“We expect both local and international interest in the site – we believe it will suit overseas parties as it has no planning risk and offers enormous upside of the development cycle.”
Mr Khan did not respond to requests from
The Australian Financial Review or Star Weekly for comment.
– Australian Financial Review
