Property heads, you’ll love this one.
Channel Nine have just shelled out the princely sum of $5million on an art deco warehouse in Port Melbourne, which will now serve as the home of a future series of the wildly popular renovation/human meltdown series The Block.
The property, located at 164 Ingles Street in the industrial suburb south of the Melbourne CBD, was previously in the hands of property magnate and legit one of the richest men in Australia, Harry Stamoulis.
The heritage-protected factory was, at one time, part of Symex Soap Factory complex, and was constructed in 1920 as the facility’s administration building – or to put it another way, it’s the IRL FIGHT CLUB HOUSE, YOU GUYS.
The site’s heritage protected status is expected to present multiple hurdles to potential contestants, with the interior containing original tiling, balustrades and a highly unique entrance way.
The rest of the soap factory site remains in the ownership of Stamoulis and his group, with much of it bulldozed, leaving the administration building one of the lone standing buildings on that side of the street. Stamoulis is developing the rest of the site into what will eventually comprise of 287 townhouses.
The whole property lies directly opposite North Port Oval, which is home to the Port Melbourne Football Club – the MIGHTY FKN BOROUGH – who compete in the first-tier Victorian Football League.
The twelfth season of The Block is scheduled to air sometime during 2016.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald.
Photo: Google.
