Real estate tycoon Kevin Seymour has announced he will put his $200m Fortitude Valley apartment project on hold until the next boom, saying demand in Brisbane is not solid enough to warrant the development, according to The Australian.
Mr Seymour told The Australian his Seymour Group would refurbish the existing building on site – The Arena nightclub – as retail, but hold any developments on the apartment project until the market improved during the next cycle.
“I don’t think demand is there without taking abnormal risk,” he said.
“The heat has come out of the market.”
Mr. Seymour said the site was perfect but the market was not hot enough, saying to The Australian that his approach was to develop in a rising market.
Seymour Group is reportedly continuing with its prestige 30-apartment project at inner-city New Farm and is preparing to lodge a development application with the council.
“We are looking for investment opportunities, some for the younger generation,” Mr. Seymour said.
It’s been a million dollar month for Seymour with various reports of his property offloads across Brisbane.
Earlier this month The Courier-Mail reported that Queens Wharf casino project had purchased Kevin Seymour’s Festival Car Park in Brisbane’s CBD for $45 million, while this week The Australian also reported Seymour offloaded his Brisbane office building HSBC Tower to Singapore-listed ARA Asset Management in a near $190 million transaction.
Brisbane has seen a wave of apartment projects with Lend Lease developing its $2.9bn residential, commercial and retail precinct on the RNA show grounds, while Tim Gurner and David Devine’s Metro Property Development undertaking projects in and around Fortitude Valley while Asian developers have snapped up sites in the CBD.
According to The Australian Financial Review, Seymour purchased the Arena nightclub site for around $12 million in 2015 and is a well-known Brisbane developer whose wealth was estimated at $622 million by BRW Rich List in 2015.
In 2013, Seymour’s daughter Leigh purchased nearby McWhirters carpark for around $40 million.
Originally Published On: http://www.theurbandeveloper.com/
