MinterEllison and
Corrs Chambers Westgarth have acted on Australia’s largest social and affordable housing development.
Minters acted as the principal legal adviser of the New South Wales Land and Housing Corporation, which is the state government’s lead agency on the redevelopment of the Ivanhoe Estates. Corrs acted for Frasers Property, the lead member of the Aspire consortium.
The consortium, which was awarded the development contract for the estate located in Macquarie Park, also includes Citta Property Group and Mission Australia Housing. The development of the project will be in several stages over the next 10 to 12 years, with work expected to start late this year.
The project could lead to more business for the law firms involved, as it is the first of five projects under the government’s $22bn Communities Plus program. The Ivanhoe Estates project is said to cost $2.2bn.
The Ivanhoe estates project by itself is massive, as it will have about 3,000 dwellings, including at least 950 social housing units and 128 affordable housing units when completed. The estate will also have a high school, a 120-bed retirement home, a senior-wellness centre, and various parks and child-care facilities.
The Minters team was led by special counsel Rachel McNaught and partner Virginia Briggs. It helped the NSW Land and Housing Corporation from the initial expression of interest (EOI) stage of the project through to the structuring, negotiation, and execution of the documents for the deal. The team also included tax partner Rhys Guild, planning and environment partner Luke Walker, construction partner Nicole Green, and finance partner Daniel Marks.
The Corrs team worked with Frasers from the EOI stage with a team led by senior associate Natalie Bryant and partner Nathaniel Popelianski. Construction partners Andrew Chew and David Warren, banking and finance partner Brad Husband, environment and planning special counsel Kirsty Davis and partner Louise Camenzuli, and tax special counsel Heran Kim and partner Rhys Jewell also worked on the deal.
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