{"id":70130,"date":"2026-08-12T06:25:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T06:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/70130\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T06:25:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T06:25:17","slug":"v-leader-scraps-400m-office-plans-for-btr-play-in-melbourne-cbd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/70130\/","title":{"rendered":"V-Leader Scraps $400m Office Plans for BtR Play in Melbourne CBD"},"content":{"rendered":"

Developer V-Leader has filed plans for a build-to-rent highrise as it makes another attempt to redevelop its Melbourne CBD site.<\/p>\n

Its newest plans for 600 Lonsdale Street, a 39-level mixed-use building, are now before the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning.<\/p>\n

Under that scheme, a 479-apartment build-to-rent tower would rise on the 1922.5sq m site on the corner of Lonsdale and King streets.<\/p>\n

The Melbourne-based developer founded in 2015 by Andy Zhang has owned the Lonsdale Street address since 2018, when it bought out 16 strata owners for $52 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It had planned a $500-million, 40-level Grade-A office project and a 288-key hotel for the site, the former home to the Lonsdale Court building from the 1920s.<\/p>\n

The building was once owned by business tycoon George Frew, who acquired it for $1.1 million in 1984. Frew was the first husband of prominent Melbourne socialite and business identity Pixie Skase. Lonsdae Court was demolished in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That same year, V-Leader scrapped the hotel component for a pure office play<\/a>, which would also cut the cost of the project down to $400 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"600<\/p>\n

\u25b2 The 39-storey proposal would replace plans for a Grade-A office tower V-Leader abandoned for the site at 600 Lonsdale Street. <\/p>\n

By 2024 the developer appeared to have given up on the project and brought the key corner site t<\/a>o market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The site was touted for its proximity to the $1-billion Queen Victoria Market redevelopment.<\/p>\n

But with its new scheme V-Leader is taking another shot at the site, proposing a build-to-rent skyscraper with a gross floor area of 34,372sq m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many developers across the country have taken a similar approach converting in-progress office projects to other schemes.<\/p>\n

It comes as nearly three in five property professionals say project feasibilities are underperforming or completely unfeasible, according to The Urban Developer\u2019s 2026 Industry Sentiment Survey.<\/p>\n

The V-Leader tower would comprise 254 studios, 136 one-bedroom apartments and 89 of two bedrooms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"V-Leader<\/p>\n

\u25b2 V-Leader\u2019s project is being designed by Rothelowman and includes a double-storey residential lobby. <\/p>\n

The upper floors would have 12 to 14 apartments per level, and the top two levels reduced to five apartments each.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There would be 1033sq m of outdoor amenity space, and 786sq m of outdoor space, plus 80 car parking spaces across two basement levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Designed by Rothelowman, the ground floor includes retail units with frontage to Lonsdale Street in a two-storey podium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Next door are two heritage two-storey facades that set a \u201ccontextual benchmark\u201d that informed design approach for the new development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

V-Leader was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Developer V-Leader has filed plans for a build-to-rent highrise as it makes another attempt to redevelop its Melbourne…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[23,3031,7065,855,260,857,1002,68],"class_list":["post-70130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-australia","tag-build-to-rent","tag-cbd","tag-development-applications","tag-melbourne","tag-planning-approvals","tag-retail","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}