The former Armadale premises of antiques and art auction house Mossgreen, which entered administration late last year, is for lease.

The historic building at 926-930 High Street (pictured top, left and bottom), formerly the Armadale Picture Theatre, only sold to Melbourne QC John Karkar 14 months ago.

Recently refurbished, the double storey Art Nouveau complex includes 1400 square metres of lettable area which the marketing agents say can be configured as offices or retail.

Part of the building was occupied as a tea room operated by Mossgreen with high-profile Melbourne chef Peter Rowland.

The property sits within a popular and affluent retail strip amongst neighbours including Aesop, Mecca, Scanlon Theodore, Sportscraft, Sheridan and Thomas Dux.

It includes 15 car spaces, and also adjoins a council car park.

Colliers International’s Kevin Tutty and Damien Adkins are marketing the building penned by architects Klingender and Alsop and which opened as a cinema in 1912. The same designers created the historic Kooyong Road, Toorak mansion, Glyn, which sold for $11 million in late 2016.

Mr Karkar paid $10 million for 926-930 High Street, on a 1221 sqm holding, a deal which reflected a 4.8 per cent passing yield. During last year’s sales campaign the investment was marketed with a long-lease to Mossgreen, whose branding is still on the building. The building previously traded for $5.06 million in 2012.

Mossgreen collapsed, reportedly with $12 million in debt to 400 creditors including Toorak businessman Jack Gringlas and several clients, for which it had sold antiques.

Prior to Mossgreen, the Armadale building was occupied by another auction house, Sotheby’s.

Seven retail assets on the ground floor of a Mill Park apartment complex, construction of which has just begun, sold for more than $5 million within a week of the campaign being launched.

The Olea development (artist’s impression, top) is proposed by joint venture partners Gibson Property Corporation and Roche Property Group. Olea is the final project earmarked within their mixed-use Mason Point precinct, about 19 kilometres north of the Melbourne CBD.

The boutique product, designed by Idle Architecture Studio, will rise four levels and contain 52 “generously sized” two-bedroom dwellings, each with underground car parking.

Figurehead Construction started construction of the project for GPC and RPG this month.

“Selecting a competent contractor with the requisite experience to undertake this project is paramount in ensuring a quality final product,” GPC managing director Charles Gibson said.

Mason Point is a mixed-use complex under construction at the south-west corner of Plenty Road and Bush Boulevard – a street which extends to merge with the busy McDonalds Road.

The six hectare site is making way for houses and workplaces expected, upon completion, to employ about 1500 people. Mason Point is about 250 metres from the Westfield Plenty Valley shopping centre and 800 metres from the South Morang train station.

“The Mason Point community is one that we are proud of. It has been designed to offer residents a unique and natural setting, whilst being located in an area of high amenity,” Mr Gibson said. “With over 350 residences now sold out across previous releases, Olea represents an opportunity to secure an affordably luxurious lifestyle in an established community.”

The Olea apartment complex, at 54 Oleander Drive, is due for completion next year.

The Floridia Italian Social Club has listed for sale its long-time Flemington base.

The historic property (pictured top, left and bottom), built in 1913 as the Kensington Masonic Lodge, but occupied for more than 40 years as the Floridia Club, is expected to sell for between $4 million and $4.5 million.

Broker Holly Owen of agency WEast is marketing the site’s potential to be redeveloped by someone “with the correct vision” into “something special” – presumably a residential complex with ground floor retail.

Alternatively, the site could be retained as a hospitality venue and commercial investment. It is configured with a bar and large dining area downstairs beside a kitchen. An upstairs studio, spreading 180 square metres, is currently leased to a hairdresser.

The upper storey has the potential to be extended and repurposed, possibly as an office space.

At 9 Wellington Street, the Floridia Club site is near from the former Quiet Man Irish Hotel on Racecourse Road which is earmarked for an apartment complex after controversially selling to a builder for about $4 million in 2016.

Last month on nearby Stubbs Street, boutique builder United Asia Group, directed by Nicole Chow, paid Vision Australia a speculated price of more than $30 million for an industrial site now earmarked to make way for a luxury apartment project.

A 3986 square metre site near to this – 88 Stubbs Street – is also for sale and expected to sell for about $15 million following a campaign by Beller Commercial.

Last week we reported that three industrial sites covering 415-423 Macaulay Road, Kensington, are the subject of a residential redevelopment application. If approved this block could make way for an eight-storey complex containing 41 dwellings.

The investment, spread across five titles and covering the addresses known as 5-17 Leslie Road and 6-10 Pipe Road, Laverton North, is trading to listed agricultural company Wingara Ag Limited.

Austco Polar Cold Storage – a business which Wingara Ag acquired earlier this year for $18.5 million – has three years left to run on a lease for the property, 18 kilometres from town, near the Boundary Road intersection with the Western Ring Road.

Knight Frank’s Gab Pascuzzi and Joel Davy were the marketing agents.

The Australian Education Union Victorian branch is selling one of two adjoining properties it owns on the banks of the Yarra River in Melbourne’s inner north-east suburb of Abbotsford.

At 112-124 Trenerry Crescent, the 4735 square metre plot includes a four-storey red-brick warehouse built in 1927, known as the Austral Silk and Cotton Mills, which the union had part-occupied as offices (and also leased out, as a landlord).

The AEU paid $8.5 million for this property (pictured top, left and bottom) 20 years ago. In 2011, it outlaid another $15.6 million to snap up the property next door – an office on about 2200 sqm of land.

Last year the AEU was successful in having its amalgamated holding rezoned from Commercial 2 to the more flexible, and valuable, Mixed Use.

This move “puts all [development] options on the table for purchasers”, according to selling agent Paul Burns, of Fitzroys, who is representing the AEU with colleague James Lockwood.

Located at a river bend, 112-124 Trenerry Crescent offers westerly views over Dights Falls. It also has an easterly aspect capturing the adjacent Victoria Park stadium, and the Melbourne CBD, which is about three kilometres away.

In the street, developers have recently been replacing former commercial sites with a mix of apartments and townhouses.

Numerous office proposals have also recently been earmarked in Abbotsford and the adjoining suburb of Richmond, including a strata complex, unveiled by CostaFox last month.

“Cadence Property Group has lodged plans for a major office development on Victoria Crescent, near the Carlton & United Brewery, and Salta Property Group is undertaking a mixed-use project with office, apartment and build-to-rent components next to its Victoria Gardens shopping centre,” the agents said, adding that United Petroleum founder, Eddie Hirsch, is proposing an 11-storey complex on Hoddle Street.

Fitzroys campaign is targeting developers, investors and owner occupiers.

“The property offers direct access to trains and buses, the Eastern Freeway and recently upgraded Hoddle Street, and a range of trendy lifestyle options and the scenery of the Yarra River, all within short walking distance,” Mr Burns said.

“Meanwhile, Melburnians are continuing to embrace medium and high-density living, fuelled further by ongoing population growth, enhancing the prospects of a future residential development on the site”.

“Office vacancies across Melbourne’s city fringe markets have been tightening to historic lows and businesses are increasingly looking to Abbotsford as the next hotspot for commercial activity located close to the CBD.

Two weeks ago, a nearby low-rise office complex at 64-78 Trenerry Crescent, and zoned Commercial 1, which, like the AEU site, would allow for residential, sold for a speculated price of more than $40 million following a campaign targeting apartment builders.

In 2016, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation sold its long-time 10-level headquarters at Melbourne’s 532 and 540 Elizabeth Street for $30 million, after spending $11 million in 2013 on a site at 529-541 Elizabeth Street, where it developed a new office.

Coincidentally another society – the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) – acquired 532 and 540 Elizabeth Street.

Vantage Property Investments has paid $30.2 million for the Blackburn headquarters of Melbourne’s Leader newspaper group.

News Corp Australia reported the disposal of its asset, 1 Chapel Street, in the Herald Sun.

The deal for the investment, which contains a 6059 square metre office (pictured, top) part-leased to Leader, was made months after Vantage Property Investments disposed of two other suburban Melbourne assets, in Box Hill and Mulgrave, for a total of $24.5 million.

In July, a neighbouring property once occupied by Leader staff – the former Lexus of Blackburn site – traded to Pace Development Group for $23.85 million.

News Corp Australia sold this 8767 sqm holding, 160 Whitehorse Road, to developer Blackburn Blossom for $19.8 million in 2015. Blackburn Blossom flipped it three months after winning approval to replace it with a nine-storey project containing 263 flats (artist’s impression, above, left).

Both recent property deals – 1 Chapel Street and 160 Whitehorse Road – were negotiated by CBRE.

Of the 1 Chapel Street campaign, marketing agent Scott Orchard said the sale price is the largest for any office outside of the CBD and city-fringe for the year-to-date.

Based on the net lettable area, the result reflects a building rate of around $5,000 a sqm, he added.

“White-collar employment growth, tenant demand and rising rents, coupled with increased investor capital from local, interstate and Asian buyers, is underpinning buyer interest and pricing in Melbourne’s suburban office sector,” Mr Orchard said. ““This is prompting an increasing number of long-term office property owners to capitalise on the current strong market conditions and explore divestment opportunities.”

Mr Orchard marketed 1 Chapel Street with colleague Kiran Pilai.

Leader, which has been based in the Blackburn area for decades, will occupy part of the building on a five-year leaseback.

InterContinental Hotel Group – the British-based parent of Holiday Inn & Suites – has signed a management agreement for a proposed Ringwood building which, when complete in about 2020, will be the tallest building in the municipality of Maroondah.

The 16-level complex at 301 Maroondah Highway, about 20 kilometres east of the CBD, is being developed by local builder 94 Feet.

The Ringwood Residences building (artist’s impression, top) will contain 164 hotel rooms, a restaurant, bar, fitness centre, swimming pool, conference and function facilities.

Eighty two “own your own” apartments are also proposed for the complex which will be constructed over the 3188 square metre block behind shops and offices, on the south-west corner of the Ringwood Bypass, overlooking Ringwood Lake.

Holiday Inn and Suites Ringwood has signed a management agreement with 94 Feet and partners Omni Property Group and Hamilton Marino Builders.

IHG has also committed to another 94 Feet building in Auckland, New Zealand, which is expected to open in 2021. Late last year the accommodation room supplier signed a 20-year lease agreement with Franze Developments to operate a 190-room Holiday Inn and Suites branded hotel in Geelong.

Ringwood Residences might only hold the title as the municipality’s tallest building for a short period. The suburb’s former Chippy’s Hardware site at 28-30 Maroondah Highway is earmarked for a 19-level tower.

In August, we reported that Hyatt Centric has leased all of an as-yet-undeveloped South Yarra Hotel, proposed by Alfasi Property Group.

Following failed bids in March and July, the US-based investment group is offering $2.95 per unit – equating to $480 million – for the fund which controls nine assets across the country.

The latest offer represents a 10.5 per cent premium to the fund’s net tangible asset value, according to this statement Australian Unity Office Fund posted on its website today.

The Australian Unity Office Fund portfolio includes:

• 30 Pirie Street, Adelaide, SA, an A-grade, 23-storey complex
• 150 Charlotte Street, Brisbane, Queensland
• 241 Adelaide Street, Brisbane, Queensland
• 10 Valentine Avenue, Parramatta, NSW
• 32 Phillip Street, Parramatta, NSW
• 2 and 5 Eden Park Drive, North Ryde, NSW
• 468 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Vic (pictured, top)
• 64 Northbourne Avenue, Canberra, NSW

The Andrews government has selected a preferred site for the new $1.5 billion Footscray Hospital near that suburb’s border with Flemington and Kensington.

The announcement, made over the weekend, means the existing Footscray Hospital between Gordon and Eleanor streets is likely to be sold off for housing after closing in 2025.

If re-elected, the state government will commence construction of a new multi-level hospital at the south-west corner of Ballarat and Geelong roads, opposite Victoria University’s Footscray Park campus.

The proposed 504-bed complex would sit adjacent to parkland overlooking the southern edge of the Flemington Racetrack and the Maribyrnong River.

The Kensington Banks housing estate is about a kilometre closer to the city from the proposed hospital.

“Building a bigger and more modern Footscray Hospital will cut waiting times and allow almost 15,000 additional more patients to be treated each year, as well as almost 20,000 additional emergency department admissions,” the government said in this statement.

“It will also allow up to 17,000 western suburb residents to be redirected from inner-city hospitals back to their local area each year, taking pressure off other hospitals and giving patients world-class care close to home, family and friends”.

If it proceeds, the new Footscray Hospital would open in 2025.

Elsewhere in the west, Western Health’s Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital is under construction in Sunshine.

The existing Footscray Hospital, built in the 1950s and later extended, offers 290 beds. Australian Medical Association Victorian president Julian Rait told the Star Weekly last month that this building “is at risk of a catastrophic failure, plagued by leaks, cracks and failing equipment”.

The purchase – which would need to be approved by Taylor Byrne shareholders and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, would give LMW access to 25 more offices throughout Queensland and New South Wales.

Taylor Byrne undertakes regular valuations in the Northern Territory and Kimberly region of New South Wales, according to Business News Australia, which is reporting the LMW bid.

The offer would give Taylor Byrne shareholders about 11 per cent in the company in the form of 8.6 million shares valued at 60 cents per security. The deal additionally includes $5.15 million in cash.

LMW employs more than 300 staff across 40 offices nationally. Its services include commercial and residential valuations and research.