From Melbourne midfielder to high-end developer, Andrew Leoncelli still kicks goals

There are two big games in Melbourne – AFL and property. Andrew Leoncelli has excelled at both.

As a footballer, he read the play with precision, and now is reading the luxury apartment market with the same laser focus.

Leoncelli played 146 games for the Melbourne Demons between 1996 and 2003 and paired that with work as a fixed-interest broker. After his retirement, he embarked on development projects through a family connection and has never looked back.

The diversity of the process, from conception to handing over the keys, played to his strengths.

“I’m a jack of all trades,” he says. “I love the daily challenges across a broad range of disciplines development creates: acquisition, feasibility, planning, design, sales and marketing and, of course, construction.”

Today, Leoncelli leads boutique developer Abadeen Victoria as co-founder and managing director, after shaping Melbourne’s skyline over 14 years as managing director of CBRE Residential Projects Victoria.

He has been integral to some of the most ground-breaking apartment projects in Melbourne, including Southbank’s Melbourne Square and Australia 108 – the tallest residential building in the southern hemisphere.

Leoncelli is now shaping the next phase of life for the select Melburnians who buy into Abadeen Victoria’s upmarket projects in the leafy eastern and south-eastern suburbs.

His business specialises in apartments of house-sized proportions for owner-occupiers, which are meticulously designed by architects whose works grace magazine covers.

“We use a different architect for every one of our developments,” Leoncelli says. “Each site is unique, with its own characteristics, and so it calls on a different design response.”

Coveted names designing Abadeen Victoria’s current projects include Ewert Leaf (Maléa on Central Park in Malvern East), Carr (Grandview in Prahran East Village), Powell & Glenn (The Parker on Caulfield Park) and Kennon (for the upcoming Kilburn Mansion project in East Melbourne).

Leoncelli grew up in Kew, where the classical streetscapes informed his future outlook. “I’d say it’s a respect for the buyer types in this market, as well,” he says. “We know what the market wants, and I know the downsizing market very well.”

That commitment to place still runs deep. A 200-year-old, heritage-protected gum tree in the grounds of the Grandview project is covered by a $400,000 tree protection bond – the largest of its kind in Australian development history.

“We choose these projects,” Leoncelli says. “The residents’ park and sense of place this incredible tree delivers makes it worth it.”

He credits former CBRE chairman and Abadeen founder Justin Brown, whom he has known for 20 years, as “the single most influential person” in his property career.

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“He’s incredibly supportive of me. Full Stop,” Leoncelli says. “We now have five developments in our first 18 months, and we’ve got the appetite for another two or three in the next 12 months, and more after that.

“It’s a long-standing friendship and business relationship that has been a very successful one.”