History
In 2005, MAB Corporation celebrated the milestone of achieving 10 years of vision with its 10th Birthday.
In 1995, Michael and Andrew Buxton founded MAB Corporation on two principal qualities – vision and intellect and since then, have built a property development company that has become a leader in its industry. “Intellect is about delivering your vision. Ensuring quality, minimising risk and creating good places that will last," said Andrew Buxton.
Between 1995 and 2005, starting with the ‘rebirth’ of Port Melbourne, MAB Corporation has used this approach with great success. “Port Melbourne was very exciting. It was perceived as a factory area. People thought we were mad to take the risk," said Michael Buxton. “Docklands was one of the hardest pieces of work I have ever experienced, but we believed our vision was right”
In the process, Michael and Andrew have created a unique family business: one that thrives on challenge and believes in the necessity of good architecture and design. MAB enjoy taking on projects with a high degree of difficulty and achieving a solid outcome.
View the MAB 10 Year Book (2005).
Past Projects
Over the past 10 years MAB Corporation has undertaken the following developments.
Anchorage Residential Apartments
The Anchorage was MAB Corporation’s first residential development in the inner bayside suburb of Port Melbourne. At the time, Port Melbourne was known as a somewhat rough suburb, therefore the Anchorage considered a risky real estate project.
Extensive research was conducted on the feasibility, and the numbers were promising, but there was still uncertainty over buyer perceptions into the area. MAB’s vision saw the potential of the development of the 300-apartment building which incorporated the old Swallow and Ariel Biscuit factory façade.
Strong sales in both Stage One and Stage confirmed the Buxton’s belief in Port Melbourne - the Anchorage Apartments became a Melbourne success story and are still considered one of MAB’s best developments today.
David Jones Perth
The David Jones Development in Perth was a joint venture between MAB and Babcock and Brown to develop the former Aherns Department store and adjacent building.
MAB secured the properties adjacent to the Ahern’s buildings to enable a large enough area for the David Jones flagship store to be built. This was an extremely complex project and was constructed in four stages to maintain a continuous trading environment.
The development also included the restoration of the Historic Savoy Hotel Façade – the project was successfully completed in October 2002 and went onto win the State Award in the Property Council of Australia Awards.
Northcorp Industry Park
Northcorp Industry Park is the result of a vision shared by MAB Corporation and John L Gibson & Co. Located in Broadmeadows, Northcorp offers a strategic relocation opportunity for small to large businesses.
Positioned only 500 meters from the Hume Highway and one kilometre from the Western Ring Road, Northcorp is considered an outstanding development with many advantages for industrial accommodation.
Northcorp's location offered tenants exceptional scope for warehousing, manufacturing and distribution focused for local, national and international companies.
Some of Australia's leading companies such as; supermarket giant Safeway, transport and distribution group Neway and rubber manufacturer Ormiston Rubber are now located within the park.
Pier 35
In September 1998, Pier 35 brought Melbourne boat owners a new level of convenience.
A joint venture between MAB Corporation and the Jackson Development Group, the marina development provided business owners a marina lifestyle offering a unique office experience. The Marina village comprises of a magnificent restaurant facility, club rooms and office accommodation.
It boasts the largest boat storage facility in the southern hemisphere and has drawn attention to the lower reaches of the river closer to the West Gate Bridge.
The huge dry stack storage building was part of a unique approach MAB had undertaken to create a state of the art marina. They recognised the needs of boaters, and that marina’s were no longer “boat parks”, but an extension of people’s entertainment areas and expressions of their lifestyle.
Located at Port Melbourne, Pier 35 is now a bustling marina with offices, boat sales and home to the Port Melbourne Steakhouse restaurant.
Red Tulip Residential Apartments
The Red Tulip Gallery apartments was formally a disused Red Tulip chocolate factory, a large century-old building behind Chapel Street, in the fashionable inner-suburb of Prahran. The factory had been home to famous Australian companies including Red Tulip, Kia Ora and OT Chilli Punch.
The interesting building provided for an inspiring transformation as the Red Tulip apartment development was created to fulfil the demand of a city-warehouse style of living. Due to the complexity of developing a run-down factory, Red Tulip was a challenging project for MAB.
Now an iconic residential apartment complex, Red Tulip incorporates, Penthouses, Townhouses and apartments and provides an ideal living situation for people seeking ease of lifestyle in a vibrant Melbourne location and helped to start the wave of factory and warehouse recycling in this style-conscious part of Melbourne.
SecurAway Self Storage
SecurAway was MAB’s self-storage business. The facilities are located at sites across Melbourne including Windsor, South Melbourne, and the award-winning facility in Port Melbourne.
MAB created a rapidly expanding business through careful site selection, market and demographic analysis, delivery of superior buildings and excellence in customer service. This business was strategically positioned to meet the growing needs of people who needed additional storage in Melbourne.
At the completion of the construction program MAB owned 25,000sqm of self storage under management placing them as a market leader in quality inner-city storage facilities.
MAB Corporation successfully sold the business in August 2004 which is now operated by National Storage.