A gateway site on Port Phillip Bay has sold for $11 million and will be transformed into high-end apartments and an upmarket supermarket overlooking Station Pier.
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Melbourne-based boutique developer Key Infrastructure Australia, which purchased the Beacon Cove food store in December last year, is well under way with plans to demolish the shop and replace it with a three-level, 15-unit project with views over the water.
The apartments on the second and third levels will all have three bedrooms surrounded by three-metre wide balconies, Key Infrastructure chief executive Barry Gale said.
Mr Gale said the ground floor would be remodelled and supermarket replaced with a new retailer like a Thomas Dux, as well as a pharmacy, bakery/cafe and newsagent.
The cafe will have outdoor seating on the north and south side.
About 90 cruise ships a year dock at Station Pier with many passengers alighting and using the Port Melbourne light rail service, which finishes at the water, to travel to the city.
The apartment development at 103 Beach Street includes plans to remodel the bike trail, light rail tracks and foreshore seating area.
Yarra Trams also has plans to make dual tram track across Beach Street to add to the existing single track which runs to the Pier.
The modest size of the Key Infrastructure's $50 million project is likely to please local residents who have been galvanised in long-standing opposition to a controversial development backed by Kuwaiti royalty on another site 150 metres along the waterfront.
Kuwaiti sheikh Mubarak Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah owns developer Action Group Australia, which holds land at 1-5 Waterfront Place.
The sheikh has lobbied to build apartments up to 10 storeys tall next to the entrance to Station Pier and recently won a landmark case at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to remove covenants on the land's title that were restricting the development.
Mr Gale said his company was working closely with residents and the council to develop plans that were suitable to the area.
"We met with the ... Beacon Cove Neighbourhood Association. We're meeting other people Friday next week. We work with the residents to do all this," he said.
