For more than three decades, Becton has been synonymous for its masterly developments such as Melbourne’s landmark 333 Collins Street office building, the Gateway office building on the St Kilda Road boulevard and its ground breaking Eastside residential development in East Melbourne. Under the direction of Max Beck and Michael Buxton, the group surged from success to success, but the split of Beck and Buxton in the late nineties broke one of Melbourne’s most successful development teams. The fallout has seen a new Becton with young guns Hamish Macdonald, Bruno Santi, Paul Briggs, Michael Taylor and, in recent times, slick real estate agent Barry Shepherd, at the helm.
The tutelage and connections of Beck remain a force at the little black office building in St Kilda Road, where Beck has earned his stripes as an elder statesmen of Melbourne’s property and business world. However, in recent years, Becton has allowed controversial developments and arrogance to overshadow their reputation in such developments as Century City Walk in Glen Waverley; sympathetic development of apartments in bayside Port Melbourne, its Pharmacy Guild office in Canberra as well as its involvement in the redevelopment of the Newcastle wharves. Many believe a born to rule arrogance has dominated at Becton since Hamish Macdonald and his fellow directors have wrested control of Becton.
Macdonald often talks about allowing others to share the advantages of inner city living when he talks so passionately about such projects as the ‘Espy’, but he often forgets about the heritage he could be trampling upon as Becton seeks to open up heritage areas such as St Kilda and Parkville to a greater community. (Sic buyers). Many of Becton’s present day developments or battles, such as its overdevelopment plans for the ‘Espy’; its continued push in Parkville against mounting public and community opposition for student housing and its despised plans for its residential plot in Byron Bay need to be revisited. Maybe, at the end of the day, Becton should realise Public Relations for PR’s sake is nonsense as is continually creating very public battles and then seeking supercilious photo opportunities. For Becton it is a no win war? Surely, the Becton arrogance or self-importance needs to be reassessed.
Do the directors really want to be seen as developers trying to maximise their wealth out of every square metre of opportunity? Or as good corporate citizens, should they be contributing to the community landscape as they have done in many, many of there past developments?
