Tony Poli to restart Port Geographe

Tony Poli's Aigle Royal Developments will revive the long-stalled Port Geographe development near Busselton, after it bought a 59-hectare tract of land in a deal worth $13.5 million.

The transaction confirms speculation reported last year by Business News, which reported that Mr Poli and his war chest of around $400 million (raised from the takeover of Aquila Resources by China's BaoSteel and Aurizon) had been circling the troubled residential project.

Aigle Royal Developments plans to begin marketing a number of canal lots at Port Geographe later this year, while its acquisition also includes around 59ha of land to be subdivided into 120 new canal lots and 530 residential blocks over the next 10 years. Those figures suggest it has paid just below $21,000 per lot and gives the company a debut rank of 27 on the BNiQ Land Developers list, which contains 31 entries.

The Port Geographe development has been a long-running issue for local residents, with lingering problems with seagrass build-up due to the construction of various groynes and sea walls.

However the state government has spent nearly $30 million since 2012 reconfiguring the groynes and removing the seagrass to rectify the issues.

The project has also been in receivership since its most recent developer, a joint venture between prominent Perth property player Luke Saraceni, Macquarie Bank and Axiom Properties, went into administration in 2011.

An expressions of interest campaign for the 59ha land package was run last year by commercial agency Savills on behalf of receiver PPB Advisory.

Aigle Royal Development general manager Brad Brayshaw said today that the company was keen to deliver on the promise of the Port Geographe development.

"The initial focus of our development will be targeted towards the delivery of residential lots as an extension of the already established Geographe community," Mr Brayshaw said.

Construction of the new lots is expected to begin midway through next year, subject to relevant approvals being obtained.

The Port Geographe purchase is the second big property buy by Aigle Royal Developments in recent months, following the $2.6 million purchase of a development site in Wattle Grove in February this year.

Aigle Royal Developments is planning to build a new shopping centre at the site, which is located at 332 Hale Road.

That deal was brokered by Colliers International's Ben Tana.