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.
Biography
Early life and career Maurice Alter was born at Szedliszcz in eastern Poland, to parents Joseph and Brachell Alter. 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.
He partnered with George Herscu in the late 1950s, and they began building shops around Melbourne's booming outer-suburbs. Their first major development was the Forest Hill Shopping Centre in partnership with a consortium led 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.
Though Masaga was a little-known company during the 1960s, it develooped hundreds of individual shops and shopping centres around the greater Melbourne area and interstate. Towards the end of the decade, Masga was building large supermarkets which were leased to national chains like Coles. Masaga also developed/owned housing estates, industrial land, export abattoirs, hotels, theatres and bowling alleys.
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. Alter lead Hanover Properties: a principal subsidiary which developed and managed property for retention as permanent investments. Hanover proffited immensely during the early-1970s real estate boom, particularly with its housing projects and shopping centres. 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. 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. Death Maurice Alter died aged 93, on 13 April 2018, and is buried at the Melbourne Chevra Kadisha. The Pacific Group remains a family business. Notable developments
Forest Hills Shopping Centre (Forest Hill Chase)
Masaga Group & Hanover Holdings OpenedNameTypeAddressStateCompany1964Forest Hills Shopping CentreRetail270 Canterbury Road, Forest Hill VictoriaForest Hill Heights1974Vermont South Shopping CentreRetail495 Burwood Highway, Vermont SouthVictoriaHanover Holdings Pacific Shopping Centres +OpenedNameTypeAddressStateCompany1978Pran CentralRetail395 Chapel Street, Prahran VictoriaBodmin Nominees 1978Flinders FairRetail180 Flinders Street, MelbourneVictoriaLidsdale Nominees 1978Tooronga Village RedevelopmentRetail766 Toorak Road, Glen IrisVictoriaTooronga Village 1979Centrepoint MallRetail283-297 Bourke Street, MelbourneVictoriaCentrepoint Freeholds 1980Footscray HubRetail144 Nicholson Street, FootscrayPacific Shopping Centres 1982Myer CentrepointRetail525 David Street, Albury New South WalesPacific Shopping Centres 1983Sunshine PlazaRetail324–328 Hampshire Road, SunshineVictoriaPacific Shopping Centres 1985Pacific WerribeeRetail250 Heaths Road, Hoppers CrossingVictoriaPacific Shopping Centres 1987Coles Group National HeadquartersOffice800-838 Toorak Road, Hawthorn EastVictoriaPacific Group 1989Forest Hill Chase RedevelopmentRetail270 Canterbury Road, Forest HillVictoriaPacific Shopping Centres 1995Pacific EppingRetail571–583 High Street, EppingVictoriaPacific Shopping Centres Net worth
Year Financial ReviewRich List ForbesAustralia's 50 Richest Rank Net worth (A$) Rank 2011 $0.70 billion 2012 $0.78 billion 2013 $0.89 billion 2014 $0.96 billion 2015 $1.20 billion 2016 $1.10 billion 2017 $1.81 billion 2018 $2.26 billion 2019 $2.33 billion $2.10 billion 2020 $2.31 billion 2021 $2.32 billion 2022 $2.60 billion 2023 $2.60 billion
Legend Icon DescriptionHas not changed from the previous yearHas increased from the previous yearHas decreased from the previous year
References