Wikipedia

Maurice Alter

Moses "Maurice" Alter (30 March 1925 – 13 April 2018) was a Polish-born Australian property developer, billionaire and philanthropist. Prior to his death in 2018, Alter was one of ten individuals listed on every Financial Review Rich List since the first list was published in 1984.

Moses "Maurice" Alter
Born(1925-03-30)30 March 1925
Siedliszcze, Poland
Died13 April 2018(2018-04-13) (aged 93)
Melbourne, Australia
Burial place
Melbourne Chevra Kadisha
CitizenshipAustralia (since 1955)
OccupationsProperty developer
Company director
Years activec1955–2018
Board member of
Hanover Holdings
(1964–79)
Pacific Group
(1979–2018)
Children2

Biography

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Early life and career

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Maurice Alter was born at Szedliszcz in eastern Poland, to parents Joseph and Brachell Alter.[1] He arrived in Australia as a displaced person in 1939, settling in Melbourne's inner suburbs. He studied electrical engineering by correspondence, later taking on a job selling real estate while on night shift as a maintenance technician in a textile factory. Alter made his first real estate investment during the mid-1950s through the purchase of two shops and a bank in Kew.[2]

He partnered with George Herscu in the late 1950s, and they began building shops around Melbourne's booming outer-suburbs.[3] Their first major development was the Forest Hill Shopping Centre in partnership with a consortium lead by Paul Fayman. The centre opened in 1964 and proved to be a highly-successful venture, marked the beginning of a long-standing partnership between the developers. That year, they consolidated their interests as the Masaga Group.[4][5]

Though Masaga was a little-known company during the 1960s, it reportedly built hundreds of individual shops and shopping centres around the greater Melbourne area and interstate.[6] The particularly built large supermarkets which were leased to national chains like Coles. Masaga also developed residential and industrial land and operated various export abattoirs, hotels, theatres and bowling alleys.[5]

Alter outside Centrepoint Mall, 1970s

Masaga went public in 1969 through a strategic reverse takeover, transforming a relatively-obscure finance company into a development group known as Hanover Holdings – thus avoiding the regulatory complexities of an IPO.[7][8] Alter lead Hanover Properties: a principal subsidiary which developed and managed property for retention as permanent investments.[9][10] Hanover soon became a prominent name in corporate Australia, profiting immensely during the early-1970s real estate boom.[11] The company’s success during this period laid foundation for Maurice Alter’s later billionaire wealth. By 1979, the Alter-Herscu-Fayman partnership moved to privatise and dissolve Hanover.[12] Alter retained a significant portfolio of commercial and industrial land, forming the basis of a new venture: Pacific Shopping Centres – which developed numerous large shopping complexes mainly in Victoria throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.[13][14]

Forest Hill Chase, 1990

Death

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Maurice Alter died aged 93, on 13 April 2018, and is buried at the Melbourne Chevra Kadisha. The Pacific Group remains a family business.[15]

Notable developments

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Forest Hills Shopping Centre (Forest Hill Chase)

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Masaga Group & Hanover Holdings

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Opened Name Type Address State Company
1964 Forest Hills Shopping Centre Retail 270 Canterbury Road, Forest Hill Victoria Forest Hill Heights
1974 Vermont South Shopping Centre Retail 495 Burwood Highway, Vermont South Victoria Hanover Holdings

Pacific Shopping Centres

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Opened Name Type Address State Company
1978 Pran Central Retail 395 Chapel Street, Prahran Victoria Bodmin Nominees
1978 Flinders Fair Retail 180 Flinders Street, Melbourne Victoria Lidsdale Nominees
1978 Tooronga Village Redevelopment Retail 766 Toorak Road, Glen Iris Victoria Tooronga Village
1979 Centrepoint Mall Retail 283-297 Bourke Street, Melbourne Victoria Centrepoint Freeholds
1980 Footscray Hub Retail 144 Nicholson Street, Footscray Pacific Shopping Centres
1982 Myer Centrepoint Retail 525 David Street, Albury New South Wales Pacific Shopping Centres
1983 Sunshine Plaza Retail 324–328 Hampshire Road, Sunshine Victoria Pacific Shopping Centres
1985 Pacific Werribee Retail 250 Heaths Road, Hoppers Crossing Victoria Pacific Shopping Centres
1987 Coles Group National Headquarters Office 800-838 Toorak Road, Hawthorn East Victoria Pacific Group
1989 Forest Hill Chase Redevelopment Retail 270 Canterbury Road, Forest Hill Victoria Pacific Shopping Centres
1995 Pacific Epping Retail 571–583 High Street, Epping Victoria Pacific Shopping Centres

Net worth

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Year Financial Review
Rich List		 Forbes
Australia's 50 Richest
Rank Net worth (A$) Rank Net worth (US$)
2011[16] 32 Decrease $0.70 billion Increase
2012[17] 30 Increase $0.78 billion Increase
2013[18] 32 Decrease $0.89 billion Increase
2014[19] 30 Increase $0.96 billion Increase
2015[20] 19 Increase $1.20 billion Increase
2016[21] 24 Decrease $1.10 billion Decrease
2017[22][23][24] $1.81 billion 20 Increase
2018[25] 26 Increase $2.26 billion Increase
2019[26][27] 35 Decrease $2.33 billion Increase 18 Increase $2.10 billion Increase
2020[28] 34 Increase $2.31 billion Decrease
2021[29] 46 Decrease $2.32 billion Increase
2022 42 Decrease $2.60 billion Decrease
2023[30] 44 Decrease $2.60 billion Steady
Legend
Icon Description
Steady Has not changed from the previous year
Increase Has increased from the previous year
Decrease Has decreased from the previous year

References

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  1. ↑ "Certificates of Naturalisation". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (73): 3828. 13 December 1956.
  2. ↑ "$200 million & more: Maurice Alter". Financial Review. 12 May 1989.
  3. ↑ Hills, Ben (7 December 1990). "House of cards: Herscu's making ... and breaking". The Age. p. 6.
  4. ↑ Pratt, Bill (2014). My Safeway Story: Making it Happen.
  5. 1 2 Hills, Benjamin (8 December 1990). "From Billionaire to Boggo Road". The Age. p. 16.
  6. ↑ "MAURICE ALTER". Australian Financial Review. 6 April 1990. Retrieved 4 June 2025.
  7. ↑ Hills, Benjamin (8 December 1990). "From Billionaire to Boggo Road". The Age. p. 16.
  8. ↑ "Finance and Business, Briefly: From today Allans Finance Limited will be known as Hanover Holdings Limited". The Age. 20 May 1969. p. 18.
  9. ↑ Directors Report and Accounts. Hanover Holdings Limited. 17 October 1969.
  10. ↑ "Hanover plans move to property". The Age: Finance and Business. 23 April 1969. p. 20.
  11. ↑ Mottram, Murray (22 August 1999). "A taxing time for a tycoon". The Age. p. 1.
  12. ↑ McDougall, Graeme (26 November 1975). "Hanover gets inside offer". The Age. p. 21.
  13. ↑ "Juilliard's $1bn sell-off". The Australian. 21 December 2017.
  14. ↑ Business Review Weekly: The Magazine of Australian & New Zealand Business · Volumes 1-2. 1991. p. 48.
  15. ↑ "THE LIST - AUSTRALIA'S RICHEST 250". The Australian. 15 March 2024. p. 66.
  16. ↑ "2011 Australia's 40 Richest". Forbes Asia. 2 February 2011. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
  17. ↑ "2012 Australia's 40 Richest". Forbes Asia. 1 February 2012. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  18. ↑ "2013 Australia's 50 Richest". Forbes Asia. 1 February 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  19. ↑ "2014 Australia's 50 Richest". Forbes Asia. January 2014. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
  20. ↑ "2015 Australia's 50 Richest". Forbes Asia. March 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
  21. ↑ "Gina Rinehart Loses Her No. 1 Spot". Forbes Asia. 27 January 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  22. ↑ Stensholt, John, ed. (25 May 2017). "Financial Review Rich List 2017". The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  23. ↑ Mayne, Stephen (26 May 2017). "Mayne's take: The top 25 Australian billionaires, as claimed by Fairfax". Crikey. Private Media. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  24. ↑ "Australia's Richest 2017: Country's Wealthiest Continue Mining For Dollars". Forbes Asia. 1 November 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  25. ↑ Stensholt, John, ed. (25 May 2018). "2018 AFR Rich List: Who are Australia's richest people?". The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  26. ↑ Bailey, Michael (30 May 2019). "Australia's 200 richest people revealed". The Australian Financial Review. Nine Publishing. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  27. ↑ "2019 Australia's 50 Richest". Forbes Asia. January 2019. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  28. ↑ Bailey, Michael; Sprague, Julie-anne (30 October 2020). "The full list: Australia's wealthiest 200 revealed". The Australian Financial Review. Nine Publishing. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  29. ↑ Bailey, Michael; Sprague, Julie-anne (27 May 2021). "The 200 richest people in Australia revealed". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  30. ↑ Bailey, Michael; Sprague, Julie-anne (26 May 2023). "The 200 richest people in Australia revealed". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
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