NAB branch quickly back on the market
By Nicole Lindsay
Vicland developer Bill McNee is flipping the NAB branch on the corner of Toorak Road and Chapel Street, just weeks after he settled on purchasing the high-profile property.
Records show McNee paid $16.2 million for the double-storey 531-square-metre building on 373 square metres of land, located across the road from the Como Centre and the Capitol tower.
An office building at 17-27 Cotham Road, Kew Junction will be a good litmus test of the investor market.
In June, McNee sold 264-266 Toorak Road for $4.54 million. The shop, leased to Oushou restaurant, is just two doors down the road.
Emmetts agents Charles Emmett and Xander Yeo, together with Cushman & Wakefield’s Daniel Wolman, Oliver Hay and Leon Ma, are running the expressions of interest sales campaign.
Emmetts also has a joint-listing nearby at 218-228 Toorak Road, on the corner of Chambers Street, which recently housed the headquarters of prestige real estate agent Kay & Burton. Records show the vendors paid $9.15 million for the property in 2014.
The three-storey 1267-square-metre office, which is across the road from South Yarra railway station, comes with 37 car parks located in an adjacent building.
While the top floor is occupied and the ground floor shop is leased to global skincare group Aesop, the first level is vacant.
JLL’s Josh Rutman, Tim Carr and MingXuan Li are selling the property with Emmetts, under instruction from Advise Transact’s Mark Wizel and Lewis Tong. They are pitching the property at this year’s market darlings – owner-occupiers. It is expected to sell for more than $16 million.
Kay & Burton has moved to Toorak Village, taking space in Vicland’s new office project, St Germain, at 505 Toorak Road.
The listings follow a hot auction on another corner of Toorak Road last week.
Five shops and an office at 109-111 Toorak Road and 1A-1C Murphy Street – on the west side of South Yarra station – fetched $6.23 million after bidding from five parties smashed the reserve price. The 390-square-metre building is on a 243-square-metre site and leased to McGrath Real Estate.
Fitzroys agents Ben Liu, Chris Kombi and Lewis Waddell handled the sale, which reflected a sharp 3.2 per cent passing yield.
Hawthorn office
Fund manager Terraplex is the latest landlord to call time on an empty building, sending to market the former Bunnings head office at 16-18 Cato Street, East Hawthorn.
The 5000-square-metre building has been empty since Bunnings’ lease expired last year and the hardware retailer consolidated a string of small offices into space at the Botanicca business park, in Richmond.
Records show Terraplex paid $24.7 million for the building in 2016. It is expected to fetch around $30 million this year.
Colliers agents Rob Joyes, Alex Browne and Ben Baines have the listing.
Browne, Baines, with Hamish Burgess and James Zhuang, are selling another small office building in the nearby Swinburne University precinct.
A two-storey property on a 1173-square-metre site at 529 Burwood Road is expected to sell for about $9 million, with redevelopment of the site the most likely future outcome.
Fund manager Terraplex is selling the former Bunnings head office at 16-18 Cato Street, East Hawthorn.
Kew investor test
An office building at 17-27 Cotham Road, Kew Junction, will be a good litmus test of the investor market.
The four-level 2860-square-metre building, overlooking the Alexandra Gardens, is fully leased and returns $1.35 million a year. It is likely to sell for around $20 million.
Records show the Dumbrell family, who established Autobarn, paid $10.25 million for the property in 2013.
Gorman Allard Shelton’s Peter Bremner, Jonathon McCormack and Stephen Gorman, together with CBRE’s Scott Orchard and Tom Ryan, are selling the property.
Georges shops
Four shops – including the Il Bacaro restaurant – at the foot of the Georges Apartments, on Little Collins Street, are for sale for the first time in nearly 30 years.
The building, located opposite the back of the old Georges department store, was owned by the retailer between 1960 and 1994.
However, it was originally built as a cyclorama in 1890, showing a painting of the 1870-71 Siege of Paris.
The cyclorama, where a panoramic image on the inside of a cylindrical platform was designed to give viewers standing in the middle a 360-degree view, was popular in the 19th century. The arrival of cinema rendered it obsolete.
The building was converted into 40 apartments in the mid-1990s by developer Michael Yates.
The four shops are for sale individually, or in one line, and could fetch more than $9 million.
Gross Waddell ICR’s Danny Clark, Michael Gross and Glenn Ye are acting under instruction from Charter Keck Cramer.
Riverside development
Mantello Holdings is selling a riverside development site in Cremorne that sits under the CityLink on-ramp and the Nylex clock sign.
The 785-square-metre site, at 1-3 Harcourt Parade, has development approval for an 11-storey hotel with 96 rooms. Tipped to sell for about $10 million, it now operates as car parking, and boasts one of the city’s most prominent billboards.
It was once the Riverside Inn, a pub built in Tudor Revival, or mock Tudor, style exuding Dickensian atmosphere by the 1980s. It burnt down in a fire before demolition for the expanded freeway on-ramp.
The property is across the road from 15 Gough Street – the old Just Jeans headquarters – which is also up for sale, and MYOB’s head office. Next door is the remains of Caydon’s $1 billion Malt District development.
Caydon collapsed last year, leaving much of the $90 million, 1.3 hectare site undeveloped. It has permits for a microbrewery, a 30,000-square-metre office building and a 200-room hotel.
The precinct is a short walk from the city’s major sporting and entertainment arenas.
CBRE’s Scott Callow and Aston Commercial’s Jeremy Gruzewski are handling sales enquiries.
Heidelberg car yard
Both the Courtney & Patterson car yard and service centre on the edge of Heidelberg are for sale, with short-term leases to the dealership attached.
The 7918-square-metre car yard at 11 Yarra Street has frontage to busy Banksia and Dora streets, and overlooks the entrance to swathes of parkland along the Yarra River.
The property is zoned Commercial 1, which allows for multi-level development of up to eight levels. It is expected to sell for more than $20 million.
Behind it at 10 Yarra Street is a 1782-square-metre warehouse, on 2023-square-metre of land, with rear access to Park Lane. Also zoned Commercial 1, it has a price tag of more than $6.5 million.
Gorman Allard Shelton agents Bremner, McCormack and Tom Maule are running the expressions of interest campaign.
The Bulleen-Heidelberg border is undergoing enormous change, with the nearby industrial precinct razed for the North-East Link tunnels and the reconfigured Bulleen Road and Manningham Road intersection.
Courtney & Patterson’s car yard and service centre are on the market.