Receivers Marketing Site of $1.9B Malaysian-Backed Melbourne Project

Receivers have moved to sell the development site for Beulah International’s long-stalled Sth Bnk project in Melbourne’s Southbank, putting on the market a high-profile scheme once slated to include Australia’s tallest tower.

KordaMentha and Alvarez & Marsal have appointed Cushman & Wakefield and Stonebridge Property Group to market the city-fringe site, with a formal sale campaign set to begin in May, according to a LinkedIn post.

The offering centres on a permit-approved mixed-use project with an estimated end value of A$2.7 billion ($1.9 billion). The development has remained dormant amid funding challenges at Malaysian-backed Beulah and a broader downturn in local market conditions.

Situated at 58 Southbank Boulevard, the Sth Bnk site was earmarked for two twisting towers rising 274 and 365 metres (899 and 1,197 feet), with the taller structure designed to surpass Sydney Tower as the country’s tallest building. Plans include Grade A offices, residential apartments, a hotel, retail space and public amenities, with the project spanning 318,000 square metres (3.4 million square feet) of gross floor area.

Dream Derailed

Beulah, led by married co-founders Chan Jiaheng and Adelene Teh, had positioned Sth Bnk as a transformative addition to Melbourne’s skyline.

The Malaysia-born pair — scions of the families behind the FBG and JKG property empires, respectively — built the privately held developer into a prominent player in Australia’s luxury residential sector, delivering projects such as the 48-storey Paragon in South Yarra and securing high-profile development sites across Melbourne.

Beulah acquired the Southbank parcel, formerly home to a BMW showroom, in 2018 and later won a state-backed design competition to develop the landmark towers. But those ambitions faltered as financing hurdles mounted, with Sth Bnk emerging as one of the most prominent casualties of Australia’s tightening development environment.

Receivers were appointed last year after lenders moved to enforce against the site, following Beulah’s inability to secure sufficient capital to advance construction. The collapse underscores the challenges facing large-scale mixed-use developments in Australia, where rising construction costs, higher interest rates and softer pre-sales have strained feasibility.

Beulah had not responded to Mingtiandi’s request for comment at the time of publication.

Market Headwinds

The Sth Bnk site goes on the block as Melbourne’s fringe office and mixed-use markets continue to face headwinds, particularly in Southbank and St Kilda Road.

Vacancy in the city’s fringe offices reached 24.7 percent in the first quarter of 2026, with tenants giving back 23,213 square metres (249,863 square feet) more than they took up during the six months to January, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report.

While investment activity has shown signs of improvement — including February’s A$185 million sale of the St Germain mixed-use complex in Toorak — leasing conditions remain challenging, with occupiers cautious amid higher borrowing costs and economic uncertainty, the report said.

Against that backdrop, any buyer of the Sth Bnk site is likely to reassess the project’s scale and timing, as developers weigh construction risk against longer-term demand in one of Australia’s most closely watched urban renewal precincts.