James Packer, Banco swoop on outgoing Leo’s Supermarkets
Developers have swooped on Melbourne’s two Leo’s Fine Food & Wine Supermarkets, set to close at the end of next year.
In the priciest deal, Orchard Piper in a consortium with James Packer, is paying a speculated $52 million for the Kew outlet, on 6835 square metres at 26-36 Princess Street and 11-15 Brougham St.
Apartments are set for the Commercial 1 zoned site, with two standalone dwellings, near Kew Junction.
Since selling Crown to Blackstone in 2022, Mr Packer has invested in a variety of sectors including e-commerce, IT – and real estate; with Orchard Piper, he is also set to replace Toorak’s outgoing Mercedes-Benz dealership.
In another partnership, the executive is behind a medium density residential project at nearby Balwyn, replacing an ex-Aveo nursing home bought last March.
Low density housing projects are also planned for two ex-Geelong schools – with developer Sivasli.
In Sydney meanwhile, Mr Packer with Time & Place recently bought an ex-David Jones warehouse to repurpose.
Heidelberg Leo’s fetches $20m
Meanwhile the 6105 sqm Heidelberg store in the popular Burgundy Street retail strip, like Kew, also exposed to a busy council car park, is selling to Mario Lo Giudice’s Banco Group for about $20m.
It is believed to be an investment, re-rented after Leo’s vacates – but Banco is a builder and this block also has significant high density residential based development upside.
“The two…infill development opportunities attracted solid interest from a variety of buyers, delivering an excellent result for the prime sites,” LAWD’s Lukas Byrns, who brokered the off-market deals with Paul Callanan and Peter Sagar, said.
“We had interest from developers looking for to build-to-sell, build-to-rent, retirement, in addition to groups looking to reposition the existing retail stores,” he added.
“We’ve seen an influx of activity for well-located apartment sites in Melbourne recently, as developers position themselves to have apartment product to sell into an improving market within the next 12 months,” according to the executive.
Mr Lo Giudice, cousin of ex-Carlton Football Club president, Mark, holds a diversified local real estate portfolio including a Hawthorn office in 2023 leased to antique art dealer Leonard Joel which relocated from South Yarra.
LAWD represented transaction advisor Charter Keck Cramer’s Tom Byrnes and Patrick McNulty, who acted for the Leo’s seller, Le Max Group, controlled by Leo and Rose Blake, which established the gourmet supermarket in 1971.
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