Commercial and residential property news
Orchard Funds Management has offloaded another CBD property, this time in Canberra.
The fund manager is making $18.5 million from the sale of an A-grade, 3,412 square metre office in Allara Street. The five Green Star rated building sold on a yield of 8 per cent.
Read moreTHE Gay Group of Companies has paid development partner Macquarie Group and Urban Pacific an undisclosed sum for its remaining interest in a $450 million Gold Coast residential development.
The Gay Group and Macquarie consortium were marketing the final blocks within its River Links project in Coomera, a 500+ block residential village under construction on what was once a dairy farm. The developers purchased the farm in 1998. The Gay Group will now resume full control of the project.
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TOP Gear television show host James May is looking for labourers to help build a new home almost made entirely of Lego.
The life-sized double-storey house will include a staircase, toilet and shower, and is expected to use more than three million Lego bricks, that have been donated by the Czech Republic.
The new Lego home is earmarked for a site at the Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking, Surrey, and its development will appear as part of a new television series: Toy Stories.
Read moreWORK is underway to renovate a rundown property in the ritzy North London Hampstead street dubbed “billionaires row”. Four tradespeople
Read moreADELAIDE retailer Truscott Casual Living went into receivership on Saturday with debts of about $5 million.
Truscott closed four stories ahead of the receivership, but 10 stores still exist, including in the Adelaide CBD, Croydon, Mt Barker and Port Lincoln.
Ernst & Young has been appointed as receiver.
Read moreRETIREMENT village operator Masonic Homes has paid $10 million an aged care facility in Adelaide. The Hillsview Village complex, in
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QUEENSLAND’s Bligh Government has identified Brisbane including Chermside, Indooroopilly and Cleveland as “high density development” areas, as part of a plan to stop urban sprawl.
The government’s new South East Queensland Regional Plan (link to the report below) has been released, in an attempt to cope with the areas expected surge in population from 2.8 million today, to 4.4 million in 2031.
The plan calls for 138,000 of the 156,000 additional new homes requirement in Brisbane, to be developed within existing growth boundaries, and alongside existing housing.
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FORMER AFL footballer Wayne Carey has listed for sale a newly built Broadbeach Waters mansion he was to have occupied with his ex-girlfriend.
Agents are expecting about $3 million for the 70 square waterfront home, which includes four bedrooms, a media room, 15 metre tiled lap pool, private beach and 11 metre boat jetty.
Wayne Carey purchased the home in late 2007 for $1.265 million before undertaking a major renovation.
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QUEENSLAND’s Dunk Island, and the smaller Bedarra Island nearby, have been sold to humanitarian group McCall MacBain Foundation for an undisclosed sum.
The two islands were offloaded by Voyages, which has been trying to sell down its portfolio of tourist accommodation assets for about a year.
McCall MacBain Foundation affiliate Pamoja Capital has purchased the islands.
Pamoja – which means “togetherness” in Swahili, undertakes socially responsible global investments within a number of sectors including education, renewable energy and natural resources, life sciences, information technology, real estate and media and communications.
Read moreQUEENSLAND businessman Kevin Seymour will pay $110 million for an office building in the Brisbane CBD.
Vendor Colonial First State confirmed negotiations are underway to sell the 25-level 300 Queen Street office building at a $22 million loss to its $132 million March 31, 2009 book value.
The sale price reflects a yield of 8.35 per cent for Mr Seymour, who is reported to be “a renowned counter-cyclical investor”.
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THE giant GPT Group is understood to be entertaining a plan to split its commercial property assets into two separate vehicles, designed to make the group look more appealing to investors, and improve the group’s negotiation position with banks.
The proposal will see Australian owned office towers and shopping centres managed by one fund, and a swag of “toxic” European assets (owned with failed investment group Babcock & Brown), managed by another fund.
The decision follows capital raisings to the tune of more than $1.7 billion, since GPT’s new chief executive and former banker Michael Cameron took the helm on May 1. In total the group has raised about $3.3 billion in the past 18 months.
Read moreNational business confidence rose in the June quarter. The NAB Business Confidence Index increased 20 per cent to -4, an
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GERMAN supermarket giant Aldi plans to open about 500 new supermarkets on Australia’s east coast, bringing its national total to more than 700.
In Victoria, new supermarkets are earmarked for Abbotsford, Albury, Caroline Springs, Maryborough and Strathdale. By the end of the year, the state will have 75 Aldi supermarkets, up from 69 now. It’s been reported new stores are also earmarked for Geelong’s Newcomb, Hamilton, Horsham, Morwell, Preston, Sebastapol, Swan Hill and Warragul.
Read moreWORK is underway to renovate a rundown property in the ritzy North London Hampstead street dubbed “billionaires row”.
Four tradespeople are living rent-free at the rundown 8-bedroom, 3-storey home in The Bishops Avenue, a street which is also home to the Saudi and Brunei royal families and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.
The home has been vacant for about ten years, London’s The Sun newspaper reports, and is being lived in rent-free by the tradespeople which includes three Romanians and a Frenchman.
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The Commonwealth Bank has been accused of using its market dominance to try and reduce competition in the $700 billion home lending market.
In a move condoned by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the CBA has told 8000 mortgage brokers they won’t be able to offer the bank’s home loans in future, if they fail to write enough business for them.
In a letter sent from the CBA to Queensland mortgage broker Wayne Ormond last month, the bank insists each of his company’s mortgage brokers must now submit four home loans per quarter. Mr Ormond’s company, Refund Home Loans employed 270 brokers, meaning the bank expected about 4,320 applications per year.
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FAST food giant McDonald’s expects to open 36 new restaurants in Australia this year, up from 21 new restaurants it opened last year.
McDonald’s chief executive Peter Bush said it planned to open more than 30 stores a year from 2010, a mix of company-owned and franchised stores.
By the end of this year, McDonald’s is expected to operate out of 815 retailers nationally.
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ENVIRONMENTAL activist Al Gore will launch the Safe Climate Australia initiative in Melbourne next week.
VicSuper chief executive Bob Welsh has invited the former US president candidate to Australia to launch the initiative at a breakfast on Monday.
Mr Welsh is one of the biggest investors in Generation Investmnet Management, a London-based fund manager which Mr Gore chairs.
Read moreMacquarie Leisure Trust Group (ASX: MLE) announced today that contracts for the sale and leaseback of AMF properties at Frankston, Woodville and Norwood, with total proceeds of $11.1 million, are now unconditional and are expected to settle in July 2009.
MLE also announced that as part of its intra group funding arrangements, a wholly owned subsidiary of Macquarie Leisure Operations Limited has issued Exchangeable Notes to Macquarie Leisure Trust to repay inter-company loans totalling $32.5 million.
Read moreSYDNEY-based fund manager and developer Charter Hall is continuing its selling spree, offloading $170 million of office and industrial property this week.
The Core Plus Office Fund has made $60.2 million from the sale of the Victorian College of Pharmacy building at Monash University, which sold to an overseas investment group.
Other sales including Bunnings stores and a Harvey Norman, are detailed in the Charter Hall announcement below:
Read moreSYDNEY: Valad Property Group (“Valad” or the “Group”, ASX: VPG) announced it has just signed agreements with Bank of Scotland plc (“BoS”) necessary to create the Diversified UK and European (“DUKE”) property joint venture, which has a term of three years. A small number of subsidiary documents remain to be executed and these are expected to be signed shortly.
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PLANS to build a $100 million cancer centre in Sydney’s ritzy inner-eastern suburb of Darlinghust are in jeopardy, after a group of local residents and Lord Mayor Clover Moore, said the development would “cannibalise” their suburb.
Mr Moore said the proposed 11-storey building – which was launched by singer Delta Goodrem last October – risks blocking sunlight to nearby homes, and will also cause traffic chaos.
Read moreBUILDING inspection giant Archicentre has warned residents in Sydney’s inner-west to take digital photos of their properties, ahead of major new roadworks nearby, which threaten to damage of their properties.
“At the very least all home owners should be taking a digital photographic record of their homes and its condition inside and out with a date stamp on the shots to record the conditions of their home for any legal disputes in the future,” Archicentre state manager Angus Kell told the Daily Telegraph.
He added if this was not possible, residents should commission reports on their homes detailing any damage caused.
Read morePremier Nathan Rees today announced that $69 million will be spent upgrading NSW Supreme Court building in Queens Square, creating 350 jobs over four years.
Mr Rees said the upgrade of the Law Courts Building would preserve the Supreme Court’s status as the preferred forum for commercial litigation in Australia.
“This is an important project, which will not only bring business to NSW, but will provide 350 jobs, both on and off-site, as construction work takes place,” Mr Rees said.
Read moreCROWN International has paid Becton about $A15 million for a major development site in the Sydney transit city of Parramatta.
The 45 Macquarie Street development site includes two heritage buildings which will be retained, and an approval for a 40,000 square metre commercial building. However Crown said its purchase is subject to approval of a revised application, that would also include residential and retail space.
Read moreENERGY Australia has paid Investa Property Group more than $50 million for a Sydney CBD office building and development site.
Energy Australia will build a substation on the city site, after which Investa will be able to develop a 21,000 square metre office building on the property.
Read moreMitcham residents may have won a five year battle to prevent the development of two high rise apartment towers opposite
Read moreFOR the second year running, a Jellis Craig employee picked up the Senior Auctioneers Competition Award, at a Real Estate Institute of Victoria hosted event last Wednesday.
Steven Abbott, a business development manager for Jellis Craig which operates mostly in Melbourne’s leafy eastern suburbs, pipped other finalists including Michael Choi of McDonald Real Estate in Keysborough, Sam Gamon of Chisholm & Gamon Elwood and John Matthews of Barry Plant in Essendon (winner of the award in 2007). Last year the award was won by Jellis Craig agent Scott Patterson.
PRIVATE developer Ubertas has revealed plans for a $450 million mixed-use tower opposite the Flagstaff Gardens, in the Melbourne CBD.
The Fender Katsalidis Architect designed tower planned for 350 William Street will rise 50-levels, and include 626 apartments, 20,900 square metres of office space, 940 square metres of ground floor retail. 460 car park bays and 185 bicycle parking spaces.
Half the apartments will be “studio” serviced apartments (ie, no separate bedroom) whereas the balance will be standard “own your own” apartments which may be lived in, or rented out as an investment.
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PLANS to develop a 92-metre office building in the shape of a curtain, behind Melbourne’s historic Windsor Hotel, have been met with a lukewarm public reception – but has won the support of Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle.
Land at the rear of the Spring Street hotel, opposite Parliament House, is earmarked for a $260 million, 25-level office building. An art deco building on the corner of Bourke Street – formerly home to Melbourne’s Hard Rock Cafe venture – will be demolished to make way for a new modern structure.
The Windsor Hotel’s famous “Cricketers Bar” will be demolished to make way for a new foyer. The new project is designed by architect Denton Corker Marshall.
Read moreTHE high profile campaign to sell a half share interest in Sydney’s landmark One Martin Place office building may be off the table.
The two Macquarie trusts which owns the asset, are reported to be holding onto the office tower, which is used as Macquarie’s headquarters. The building’s entire value fell from $530 million to $485 million in December, according to Macquarie. It was hoping to achieve more than $200 million for a half share, but has failed.
Macquarie has a $128.9 million debt expiry at the end of August.
Read moreAUSTRALAND Property Group has announced plans to raise $475 million, at the same time the company booked a net loss
Read moreWESTPAC Funds Management Limited has reaped $10.4 million from the sale of six retail assets it put to the market earlier this year.
The most expensive property sold was in the south-eastern suburb of Springvale, where a Hungry Jacks leased restaurant at 19 – 21 Springvale Road sold for $2.3 million, on a yield of 5.75 per cent. A Hungry Jacks restaurant at the busy corner of Hume Highway and Camp Road sold for $2.2 million, on a yield of 6.04 per cent.
MACQUARIE Office Trust has closed pedestrian access to its 171 Collins Street shopping centre and office building, a year after challenging a landmark planning precedent that more than doubled the regulated height of a building in the Central Business District’s “Swanston Street spine”.
The building, which includes several ground floor shops, is expected to remain boarded up and vacant for however long it takes for the site to be developed.
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A massive Footscray property – occupied for years by used car dealership Flinkiers – has sold for $5.25 million, and is expected to be developed into one of the inner-city suburb’s tallest buildings.
Fitzroys selling agent Julian Heatherich said a private developer has snapped up the 5,320 square metre development site, which fronts Hopkins, Whitehall and Warde streets, about five kilometres west of town and near the Maribyrnong River and West Melbourne suburb border.
The site is expected to make way for a 10-level mixed use building incorporating ground floor retail, and apartments and which would offer postcard CBD views over the river.
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Woolworths has lodged plans to build a new supermarket and shopping centre on a prominent Phillip Island caravan park it bought as a development site about two years ago.
The Boomerang Caravan Park site at 121 Thompson Road in the island’s main township of Cowes, is expected to close in May 2011 when an existing lease arrangement between Woolworths and the park operator lapses.
Sources say the proposed new development will include a 3,200 square metre Safeway supermarket, and about nine specialty shops totaling 1,408 square metres. It’s understood the project could have an end value of more than $20 million, but this could not be confirmed with a Woolworths representative, who failed to return calls.
THE ritzy south-eastern suburb of Armadale is about to lose one of its biggest office tenants, if speculation engineering, science and project delivery giant Sinclair Knight Merz has found a new city headquarters are true.
Well placed industry sources say the Orrong Road based consultancy is formalising plans to lease about 12,000 square metres of CBD office space, with Stockland’s 452 Flinders Street building understood to be the frontrunner.
COMPUTERSHARE boss Chris Morris is in negotiations to buy nine Victorian hotels, the remaining properties in a portfolio being offloaded by the beleagured Cornerstone Hotels group.
The properties include South Yarrra’s Botanical, Brighton’s Half Moon Bay, Kew’s Skinny Dog, Prahran’s Lucky Coq, Fitzroy’s Bimbo Deluxe and Collingwood’s The Tote – which are all close to sale for an as-yet undisclosed sum.
Mr Morris has owned Victoria’s popular Portsea Pub since 1999. Last year he purchased the Empire Beer Group, which gave him ownership of the Royal in East Perth, and a new brewery in Margaret River.
Read moreA panel discussion to debate the contentious issue of demolishing old buildings to make way for new ones, will be
Read moreFORTY FIVE years after Beatles fans famously made the street’s around Southern Cross Hotel a chaos zone, the next stage of the site’s redevelopment into a mixed-use working and shopping mecca is about to be unveiled.
Southern Cross Lane, the city’s latest polished laneway, will open in mid-October, wedged between two shiny glass office buildings connecting Little Collins and Bourke streets.
WESFARMERS owned insurance and financial services provider OAMPS has leased the last chunk of office space, in a distinctive new Becton building opposite the Treasury Gardens on the city’s eastern fringe.
OAMPS will lease 2,568 square metres of high end office space at 289 Wellington Parade South, in East Melbourne, relocating from an office at 176 Wellington Parade nearby.
Engineering consulting firm Irwinconsult has leased 1,868 square metres and will relocate from Southbank.
THE Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has approved a major mixed use development, for a site opposite the popular Balwyn Theatre.
The owner of the 188 Whitehorse Road Balwyn site, represented by town planner Urbis JHD, plans to build a 3-storey building comprising a 2,412 square metre supermarket, two levels of offices totalling 3,565 square metres, and 213 car spaces. The development, which will also be accessed via Jersey Street, was approved by VCAT with some amendments. It’s speculated the project could have an end value of between $20 million and $25 million.
ELEVEN months after being placed into administration, Roxburgh Park’s near-new Bridgewater aged care facility has been put up for public sale.
The 132-bed nursing home shut its doors late last year, forcing the relocation of residents who had paid large admission fees to buy into the five-year old Wedgewood Road facility. Bridgewater was reported to have breached several health regulations, but there were also examples of financial mismanagement, with the company owing creditors about $1.5 million, and staff about $500,000 in entitlements at the time of its collapse – money not expected to be repaid.
THE Victorian Farmers Federation has outgrown and will sell an “under-utilised” office building at Collins Street’s Paris-end.
The 40-year old office at 24 Collins Street is expected to sell for between $16 million and $19 million, sources say, reflecting a yield of between 6 and 7 per cent, based on the building’s potential annual rental income of $1.1 million.
COLONIAL First State will reap $59 million from the sale of its 215 Spring Street office building, once the headquarters of professional services giant PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Private investor and developer the Knowles Group has purchased the 22-year old, 9-level building which has three street frontages and is opposite a Parliament train station entrance, and the Parliament Gardens.
CFS, via a previous Commonwealth Bank association, paid $42 million for the 15,549 square metre office in March 2000.
A NEW price record is believed to have been quietly set for the ritzy bayside suburb of Brighton.
Sources say an undisclosed Geelong-based business identity has agreed to pay about $15.5 million for a waterfront mansion at 25 – 27 Glyndon Road, in the suburb’s “Golden Mile”.
The 5-bedroom mansion has a 59-metre water frontage, and includes a tennis court, swimming pool, spa, sauna, gym, home theatre and rooftop entertainment area.
GREY concrete silos – for generations a prominent landmark on the drive into central Geelong – are to be sold, and may be redeveloped into the city’s next social housing project.
The vendor of the property, Printco Signage director Neil Slater, can expect to make about $3 million sources say, from the 46 – 48 Mercer Street development site. The property abuts the Geelong train station – the only train station in the city’s Central Activity District.
The six-tube silos will be sold with a permit for an 8-level, 40-unit apartment project which would offer Corio Bay views.
The silo project was recently registered on the Federal government’s National Affordable Rental Incentive Scheme, and the Nation Building – Economic Stimulus plan, which will make it attractive to private social housing developers, Kelemen Commercial selling agent Craig Ferguson said.
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THE FORMER Brighton home of Olympian-turned Gold Coast Mayor Ron Clarke is believed to have sold for about $12 million, and will be developed into apartments.
Boutique builder L & D O’Brien Holdings Pty Ltd has purchased the imposing but rundown 1 Bay Street mansion, which occupies a prominent waterfront position overlooking Port Phillip and the Middle Brighton Baths.
The home will be demolished to make way for a luxury apartment complex of at least six units, sources say. JP Dixon’s Jonathan Dixon is marketing the units but was unavailable for comment.
Read moreFAIRFAX Media has reaped more than $5.5 million from the sale of its outgoing 43 Bank Street studio in South Melbourne.
A residential developer will build a high rise apartment complex on the site, which has been home to Fairfax Media-owned Southern Cross Broadcasting since 1991. The 2,600 square metre building – which is expected to be demolished – is home to talkback radio station 3AW693, and music station Magic1278.
When the 1,441 square metre development site came on the market last month, it was expected to sell for about $4.5 million. Lemon Baxter marketed the property.
THE former Warley Hospital, which supported Phillip Island’s small but fluctuating population since 1923, is understood to have sold to developers.
Local industry sources expect the 4,106 square metre site will be developed into apartments over the next couple of years, but this could not be confirmed with Judith Wright selling agent Mike Foenander, who was unavailable for comment.
The hospital site is one block west from the main street of Phillip Island’s town centre, Cowes.
PRIVATE investment group the Julliard Group has paid $18.9 million for a Port Melbourne commercial asset.
The fully-leased building at 1 – 23 Wirraway Drive sold on a yield of 8.3 per cent, based on the building’s annual income of $1.583 million.
The building was offloaded by private developer Salta Property Group, which last week sold another asset in Port Melbourne before a scheduled auction.
Read moreHOUSE hunting is about to become a lot easier, after internet giant Google launched a free property listing service for property sales and leases.
The new feature aggregates listings from real estate agents, and other people marketing their homes, and displays them as pins on Google maps. Web users can enter details such as property type, number of bedrooms, and price, and then search using an interactive map.
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Watpac Limited’s (ASX: WTP) Construction division has been awarded the construction of the RMIT University Design Hub, with a contract sum of $62 million.
The high-profile project will be located at the strategic north-west corner of Swanston and Victoria Streets, on the site of the former Carlton United brewery.
Watpac Construction National General Manager, Martin Monro, said the award of this landmark project represented a key milestone in the company’s strategy of growth in the Victorian market.
“Watpac has worked diligently to expand our Construction division in Victoria, and the award of this significant project—our largest to date in this market—is an endorsement of our team and their dedication to building on our reputation for excellence and quality,” Mr Monro said.
Read moreA $200 million Business and IT-focussed college, and student accommodation apartment complex will be developed on the prominent City Mazda car dealership, opposite the southern boundary of Melbourne’s popular Queen Victoria Market.
The Melbourne Institute of Technology, headed by Shesh Ghale, has paid $16.2 million for a portion of the dealership, which will make way for a new college campus capable of accommodating 3000 students, and an apartment tower. The development is estimated to have an end value of between $150 million and $200 million.
Read moreLeading electricity distributor CitiPower has outlaid $4 million to secure one of its key substation sites in Melbourne. The Southbank
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