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Hanover Holdings

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Hanover Holdings was a property development and investment firm jointly controlled by developers Paul Fayman, Maurice Alter and George Herscu. From it's formation in 1969 to the eventual dissolution in 1977, the company and it's various subsidiaries were behind the construction of many shopping centres, office buildings and housing projects in Melbourne and regional Victoria. Hanover was a big player in the Melbourne property boom of the early 1970s, boosting profits from $67,000 in 1969 to a peak of $1.8 million in 1973. The bubble burst in 1974 and profits plunged to $631,000.

History

Background

Paul Fayman immigrated from Sosonowiec, Poland to Melbourne in 1952 and originally found success trading with Max Siegal as a wholesale butcher in Preston before getting into realestate in the mid-1950s. Prior to his involvement with Hanover Holdings, Fayman's projects included the Forest Hill Heights housing estate (1959), the Borrack Square Shopping Centre and Central Hotel at Altona North (1960), the Monash Hotel at Clayton (1963), the Forest Hills Shopping Centre (1964) and the Burwood Rise housing estate in Vermont South (1968).

In 1950, George Herscu left his birthplace of Rumania and settled in Gamon Street, Seddon.

Formation

The partnership began when Paul Fayman was showing property developers Maurice Alter and George Herscu around his recently-completed Forest Hill Shopping Centre in 1968. Herscu suddenly blurted out "Why just buy the shops? I want to buy the whole centre." The three executives combined their investments and projects to create Masaga Investments, which in March 1969 bought about 70% of Allans Finance from Allan & Co. The company officially changed it's name to Hanover Holdings on 20th May 1969.

  1. Kennedy, Robert (3 July 1985). "Developer shows up with 2% stake in Jennings". The Age. p. 19.
  2. McDougall, Graeme (26 November 1975). "Hanover gets inside offer". The Age. p. 21.
  3. "Paul Fayman - JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry". Ancestry.com.
  4. "Two Butchers Fined £80 for Excess Prices". The Age. 12 May 1954. p. 5.
  5. "Shopping centre". Herald. 19 July 1957. p. 13.
  6. "Licensing acts: Notice of application for a victualers license for premises to be erected at Clayton". The Age. 23 January 1960. p. 63.
  7. "Altona schemes to be discussed". The Age. 30 May 1958. p. 3.
  8. "Altona to get its first hotel". The Age. 21 May 1959. p. 10.
  9. Davie, Ray (21 November 1968). "Shop centre buys 80 acres for housing". The Age. p. 13.
  10. Hills, Ben (7 December 1990). "House of cards: Herscu's making ... and breaking". The Age. p. 6.
  11. "Hanover plans move to property". The Age. 23 April 1969. p. 20.
  12. "Finance and Business". The Age. 20 May 1969. p. 18.
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