Deague family launch Box Hill two tower project
Melbourne’s Deague family has launched its $260 million hotel and residential development at Box Hill, 14 kilometres east of the Melbourne CBD, through its Asian Pacific Group (APG).
The twin-tower project, which is designed by architect Peddle Thorpe, will have 650 apartments and hotel rooms. An Art Series Hotel in the complex will be named in honour of Chinese-Australian artist Zhong Chen.
APG chief executive, William Deague, who has been joined by his brother Jonathan in the family firm as executive director, said the Box Hill concept was preferable to joining the rush for apartment towers in the CBD.
The group is also beaming its energy north to Brisbane where it has partnered with CorporateRealEstate’s Adam Flaskas to build a six star 140 riverside hotel.
The flagship hotel will be on more than four hectares of Brisbane’s historic Howard Smith Wharves, which is under the Story Bridge.
APG will also develop its Spring Hill site in inner Brisbane, which it paid $23 million for earlier this year. This development will be a $155 million complex that has the Art Series hotel called The Johnson – after Sydney artist Michael Johnson – plus 180 residential apartments.
Recently the group opened three more Art series hotels, which are valued at $110 million. They are the Larwill in Parkville, The Schaller in Bendigo and The Watson in Adelaide, named after David Larwill, Michael Schaller and Tommy Watson, respectively.
Construction has also begun on another APG Adelaide project, the Vue, a 207-apartment tower on King William Street that will be the tallest residential tower in South Australia. Some 197 apartments in Vue valued at $100 million have been sold.
The group now has six Art Series properties including the established hotels: The Olsen, The Cullen and The Blackman in Melbourne’s inner areas.
The Art Series Hotels, where guests can stay from $100 a night and take dedicated art tours, have been a hit in Australia’s cultural climes.
The group’s only foray into Sydney was The Storrier, in a restored Art Deco Hotel in Potts Point that lasted less than a year despite being profiled in The New York Times as the “ultimate cocoon in which to chill..."
That property was promptly taken over by Quest Apartments, which has traded from the Springfield Avenue building since 2009.
Main image: APG's Olsen Hotel.