Buxton buys office to occupy, expand reach
The executive behind two Buxton agencies – in Ashburton and Oakleigh – has purchased a prime Hawthorn office allowing the company to forge into a new and pricey region.
Chris Constantinou won the keys to 157 Auburn Road, a holding south of Burwood Rd, with a bid of $5.11 million at auction in March.
Part of the ground floor is now expected to be fit out as an agency, possibly trading by the busy spring selling season.
“Interest has soared from owner occupiers who are very active at the moment,” Colliers’ Ben Baines, who marketed the property with Alex Browne, said, while not disclosing the buyer.
“Across the city fringe and inner metro markets, we are dealing with over 170 businesses looking to buy their own office with a total area demand of approximately 90,000 square metres from this buyer profile,” he added.
Another owner occupier deal
The Auburn Rd office includes a two storey, 1183 sqm office on a 668 sqm plot and – diagonally adjacent to that, a 369 sqm General Residential Zone 3 parcel, presently an open-air car park.
Elsewhere in Melbourne, recently, Rick Jamieson outlaid a speculated $30.4m for a warehouse converted office abutting the Yarra River, in Abbotsford, for his Astrodome Hire and Harry the Hirer businesses to occupy (story continues below).
That seller was the Zagame family which paid the Australian Education Union Victorian division $21m in 2019, then renovated.
Earlier this month, meanwhile, chef Luke Skidmore acquired a Collingwood property, part for a restaurant with the balance for offices he will occupy.
Also, this quarter, the Uniting Church sold three neighbouring tennis courts covering 1748 sqm in Blackburn South to a local sports group, for $2.471m.
Interestingly with that deal, the buyer secured the property despite its bid not being the highest.
In retail circles, the owners of the Chemist Warehouse building have been securing sites in prime retail precincts, like Kew Junction and Richmond, and in regional New South Wales, some which it could move the business into longer term.
In Sydney, Ray White franchisees have since 2020 snapped up offices in Double Bay and Parramatta with plans to occupy.
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