Build-to-RentClare BurnettWed 12 Aug 26
V-Leader Scraps $400m Office Plans for BtR Play in Melbourne CBD
Developer V-Leader has filed plans for a build-to-rent highrise as it makes another attempt to redevelop its Melbourne CBD site.
Its newest plans for 600 Lonsdale Street, a 39-level mixed-use building, are now before the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning.
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.
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.
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.
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.
That same year, V-Leader scrapped the hotel component for a pure office play, which would also cut the cost of the project down to $400 million.
By 2024 the developer appeared to have given up on the project and brought the key corner site to market.
The site was touted for its proximity to the $1-billion Queen Victoria Market redevelopment.
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.
Many developers across the country have taken a similar approach converting in-progress office projects to other schemes.
It comes as nearly three in five property professionals say project feasibilities are underperforming or completely unfeasible, according to The Urban Developer’s 2026 Industry Sentiment Survey.
The V-Leader tower would comprise 254 studios, 136 one-bedroom apartments and 89 of two bedrooms.
The upper floors would have 12 to 14 apartments per level, and the top two levels reduced to five apartments each.
There would be 1033sq m of outdoor amenity space, and 786sq m of outdoor space, plus 80 car parking spaces across two basement levels.
Designed by Rothelowman, the ground floor includes retail units with frontage to Lonsdale Street in a two-storey podium.
Next door are two heritage two-storey facades that set a “contextual benchmark” that informed design approach for the new development.
V-Leader was contacted for comment.
