MELBOURNE, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) - An Australian shopkeeper has chosen to give away his property to a new concept apartment project rather than sell it for millions of dollars to "evil" developers.
Anthony Patton, owner of Kinki Gerlinki fashion stores, was offered up to 1.9 million US dollars for his large site on busy Sydney Road in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Brunswick, but turned it down.
Patton said he rejected the big-money offers from a number of developers because he was sick of seeing "cookie cutter" apartments, cheaply made and all much the same design, being built all over Melbourne.
"They are all evil," Patton said of the developers, in comments published by Fairfax Media on Monday.
Instead, the location will become the third Nightingale apartment block, a series of projects by "true-believer" Melbourne architects who build housing that promotes "individual and collective well-being, economic progress and social prosperity in urban environments."
While he won't make millions of dollars through the sale, Patton will be compensated by having the mortgage on his property paid off, a three-bedroom apartment in the 20-apartment project and a smaller store on the premises.
"At the end of it, I get an apartment, a shop and no mortgage," he said.
The apartments will come with no underground parking, no air conditioning and no private laundries but with solar energy facilities and a water collection system to feed its large rooftop garden.
Construction of the first Nightingale project, also in Brunswick, began last week after a challenge by the state planning tribunal over the lack of parking delayed the project by a year.
Another Nightingale project, in the northeastern suburb of Fairfield, is also pending a planning tribunal decision after neighbors took the company to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) over the project's lack of parking.
Half of the Nightingale group's investors and architects are also expecting the newest project to end up in front of VCAT.
Almost 200 prospective buyers are competing to purchase one of the 20 proposed apartments in the new project. A one-bedroom apartment will sell for 343,000 US dollars and a two-bedroom for 504,000 US dollars.
The apartments come with strict contracts that limit profits on resales for the next two decades to encourage owner-residents.
