VCAT Approves Construction of Luxury Home Overlooking Controversial Mount Martha Beach

EXHIBITIONIST sunbakers and adventurist gays visiting Mount Eliza’s Sunnyside beaches might have to contend with the sight and sound of construction workers for a few years longer.

Millionaire horse trainer Jonathan Munz has successfully lobbied the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal for a permit to build a luxury home and tennis court on a waterfront piece of his landmark Pinecliff horse training complex – near another home that was demolished in 2006.

Pinecliff, at 55-75 Sunnyside Road is on Green Wedge Zone 3 land near the YMCA’s Manyung Recreation Camp, the Morning Star Winery and Mornington Golf Club (an image of the Mount Martha coast, above).

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New home sales drop but still strong: HIA

Victorian new home sales dropped by 9 per cent in May, following months of increased sales resulting from the boosted first home buyer grants.

Overall Victoria’s new home sale market is still performing impressively, with detached home sales increasing by 16 per cent over the three months to May 2009, according to the Housing Industry Association’s survey of the state’s largest builders.

 “Along with other leading indicators, the figures point to a healthy new home building market in Victoria in 2009,” said HIA Victorian Executive Director Gil King.

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Actors Reg Gorman and Judith Roberts sell in St Kilda East

ACTORS Reg Gorman and Judith Roberts have sold their two-bedroom apartment in St Kilda East’s quaint Ardoch development for $740,000.

The renovated, ground-floor unit at 8 Ardoch Avenue is in one of Ardoch’s historic buildings, built in the 1920s. The oldest building in the unique estate dates to the 19th century, while newer buildings were developed on the site in the mid 1990s.

Ardoch centres around a grassy expanse, and its residents share a sauna, gymnasium and indoor pool. The property was once used as an orphanage, and a school.

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Rove McManus sells Richmond mansion for $3.4 million

ENTERTAINER Rove McManus has sold his Richmond home for $3.4 million – returning a nifty profit on the $1.9 million he paid in 2003.

McManus, who recently moved to the US and paid $1.2 million for a house in Hollywood, listed the 144-year old Docker Street home for sale earlier this year.

It was advertised to sell for about $3.5 million, and was deemed “on the market” when bidding hit $3.31 million.

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FKP to sell 399 Lonsdale Street

QUEENSLAND-born developer and fund manager FKP has quietly listed another major CBD asset for sale.

FKP, which recently relocated its headquarters to Sydney, can expect some $35 million, sources say, for the fully-leased office at 399 Lonsdale Street.

The 10-storey building, on the south-west corner of Hardware Lane, was developed in 1986 and fully refurbished in 1993 and 1997. It includes 10,176 square metres of office space, and is fully leased to education service provider Taylors College.

In recent years, the top of the city has become a private education service hub. Last March, education entrepreneur Shesh Gale, owner of the Melbourne Institute of Technology, paid $15 million for the historic Argus building at the north-west corner of La Trobe and Elizabeth streets, which will reopen as a school after a refurbishment.

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Katherine Place Complex Sells For $16.35 Million

ESTABLISHMENT family the Smorgon’s have sold a Melbourne CBD office for $16.35 million.

The Katherine Place complex at 517 – 537 Flinders Lane was developed in the 1980s by the Becton Group and includes two buildings, known as 517 – 525 Flinders Lane (rising four levels and with 5609 square metres) and 533 – 537 Flinders Lane (a smaller four-level 1556 square metre office).

Both assets are flanked with ground floor retail. Private investor Brendan Sullivan has been reported as the buyer, purchasing the asset on a low yield of 6.2 per cent.

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Lincraft buys massive warehouse in Melbourne’s west

FABRIC store retailer Lincraft has paid $6.5 million for an office warehouse building at Derrimut’s Gilbertson Industrial Estate.

The 2.53 hectare site at 60 Fulton Drive includes a 9114 square metre office warehouse, and was sold with a short term lease to distribution company Axima.

Lincraft, which was in receivership just six years ago, before being bought out, will owner occupy the western suburb site, ending a search that saw it hem office warehouse all around metropolitan Melbourne.

“It’s been many years since a property of this quality was offered for sale to an owner occupier within the Gilbertson Estate,” said Colliers International agent Nathan Bingham, who sold the site with Tony Iuliano.

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Hotel proposal at Scientology HQ

SEVEN months after paying the Church of Scientology $8.5 million for its long-time, outgoing, Melbourne CBD headquarters, Melbourne developer David Marriner has proposed a glass, 25-level hotel.

The proposed development will retain the historic building (right) at the corner of Exhibition and Little Collins street. The building will be reconfigured as retail and strata office space.

Atop the historic building, separate by stilts (not unlike a proposed building above the former Le Louvre boutique nearby), a large scale skyscraper will be developed.

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Chinese developer buying Melbourne office from ISPT

CHINA based builder Sunnyland Investment Group has paid about $40 million for a major St Kilda Road development site which has the potential to yield at least two major apartment skyscrapers, and a ground floor shopping centre.

The purchase continues a trend of Asia-based investors swooping on inner-city sites and exploiting the state government’s problematic Melbourne @ 5 Million planning policy which encourages higher density redevelopment around existing roads and public transport – a strategy that hasn’t gone unnoticed to stressed drivers, bus and rail commuters in this election campaign.

Sunnyland’s latest acquisition is of the Clemenger BBDO House office at 472 – 474 St Kilda Road, on the south-west corner of Leopold Street.

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IKEA to open at Campbellfield’s Pipeworks Market

VICTORIAN Planning Minister Justin Madden has approved a planning permit and rezoning of Campbellfield’s Pipeworks Market, paving the way for Swedish furniture giant IKEA to open a new store there.

The 41,000 square metre IKEA store will be the group’s biggest in Australia. It will replace Pipeworks address at 400 Mahoneys Road.

In Melbourne, IKEA also trades from Victoria Gardens in Richmond, and is building another store in Springvale, near a new, large Harvey Norman store.

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Lend Lease to build strata office complex at Docklands

SYDNEY based developer Lend Lease is set to develop a strata office building in Melbourne’s Docklands.

The $70 million project – Lifestyle Working Collins Street – will measure 9500 square metres and include 137 suites ranging in size between 48 and 123 square metres.

The complex, with a street address of 838 Collins Street, will include shared meeting spaces for occupants to share.

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Becton sells Melbourne office

EAST Melbourne based developer and fund manager Becton is understood to have sold another office asset, this time in the CBD.

Becton is speculated to have reaped about $18 million from the sale of 422 Little Collins Street. On that assumed figure, the group made a loss on the $22.2 million it paid Vicland for the asset four years ago.

The eight-level, 5246 square metre building is 98 per cent leased, with education service provider Cambridge International College the largest tenant. The asset returned almost $1.7 million per annum in rent, and is understood to have sold to a private investor.

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Delgany apartments for sale

A CONSORTIUM which retained a swag of apartments and townhouses built within the walls and around the garden of Portsea’s landmark Delgany estate, has put that portfolio on the market.

The distinctive limestone mansion on the non-beach side of Point Nepean Road was developed in 1923 by architect Harold Desbrowe Annear, as a holiday house for western district farmer Harold Armytage – whose other property included South Yarra’s Como mansion.

Delgany was converted into a luxury restaurant and hotel before being sold to developers for $10 million in 2003, who built flats within the historic home, and townhouses around the three hectare garden.

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Lexus buys former News Limited and Cottee’s facility, Blackburn

160 Whitehorse Road AerialLEXUS of Blackburn – whose radio advertisements wake tens of thousands of Victorians ahead of 3AW’s popular Rumour File – has itself settled speculation it has made a major property play.

The prestige car dealership is understood to have paid about $12 million for News Limited’s former Leader Newspaper facility at 160 Whitehorse Road, near its existing facility at 146 Whitehorse Road.

Lexus will develop an iconic, new car facility on the site at the corner of Railway Road and near the Blackburn train station – set to highlight the brand’s environmental credentials.

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Chapel Street’s Conways Buildings sells for $12.8m

Conways BuildingCHAPEL Street’s historic Conways Building sold at auction on Thursday for $12.8 million.

On a 1000 square metre site, the 2372 square metre Prahran building is configured as four ground floor retail shops, and ten upper floor commercial studios.

On a fully let basis, the property could rent for $775,000 per annum, meaning the asset sold on a 6 per cent market yield.

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Becton lists 422 Little Collins St

422 Little Collins StreetDEVELOPER and fund manager Becton is still in a selling mood.

This time, the East Melbourne-based group is offloading a Little Collins Street office building it bought from Vicland for $22.2 million in September 2006.

The 422 Little Collins Street office is expected to fetch about $17.5 million this time around, reflecting a yield of about 10 per cent based on the assets approximate annual income of $1.75 million.

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ISPT sells St Kilda Rd office

474 St Kilda RoadGONE are the days when St Kilda Road complexes were limited to about 12 levels.

With the sky now the limit in regard to residential development in Melbourne – the value of a low rise office, with three street frontages at 472 – 474 St Kilda Road has ballooned over the past four years.

Sources say Industry Superannuation Property Trust has entered advanced negotiations with an as-yet-undisclosed residential developer, to sell the Clemenger BBDO House building for about $37.5 million.

ISPT paid $29.6 million for the asset in October 2006.

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McDonald’s set to develop prominent Ringwood site

AFTER picking up a prominent eastern suburb development site at a particularly depressed time in the property cycle last year, fast food chain McDonalds is readying to play property developer.

McDonalds is looking to replace part of a prominent former Patterson Cheney car dealership at 43 – 57 Maroondah Highway in Ringwood, with a 24-hour restaurant.

It paid about $15 million for the massive 16,380 square metre site, near the Maroondah Highway exit of Eastlink, almost a year ago.

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Maple Close Business Park, Richmond, Sells For $20 Million

LOCAL developers are believed to have paid about $20 million for an inner-city business park near the riverfront suburb border of Richmond and South Yarra.

Sources say prominent Richmond investors Michael Gannon and Gus Cooper have purchased the Maple Close complex, at 650 Church Street, from another private investor.

Currently configured as six low-rise buildings with a combined net lettable area of 6600 square metres, the complex is considered under-developed by today’s standards – especially seeing it has four street frontages.

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Letten receivers sell Flinders Lane building

RECEIVERS for the Letten Group have recovered $13.31 million from the sale of a historic Flinders Lane office and retail building.

Savills agents Clinton Baxter and Nick Peden sold 167 – 173 Flinders Lane at auction yesterday, in front of a crowd of some 250 people.

The property, on the south-west corner of Hosier Lane, was previously controlled by Mark Letten and celebrity health expert Dr John Tickel, who paid $3.67 million for the asset in September 2001.

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Central Equity to Sell South Melbourne motel after abandoning redevelopment plan

SKYSCRAPER developer Central Equity has abandoned plans to redevelop the former Kingsway Motel, in South Melbourne, and has instead listed the site for sale.

The former ASX-listed developer can expect to make about $15 million for the 2092 square metre property, which includes two terrace houses, and the prominent, white, six level, 41 room motel at the north-east corner of Park Street and Eastern Road.

Central Equity paid $6.25 million for the property just over three years ago, before obtaining a permit to more than double the number of apartments on the site, opposite the Latrobe Reserve.

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Owner Occupiers Spend $15 Million on Altona Properties

VIKING Transport has paid $12 million for a 10-hectare industrial facility in Melbourne’s west.

The purchase, of 441 – 459 Kororoit Creek Road will be the fourth owner-occupied site in the area for the transport and logistics group.

Knight Frank selling agents Matt Crofts and Andrew Macqueen said that with industrial vacancy rates levelling at about 4 per cent during the economic downturn, demand from both tenants and investors has been strong.

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Toorak Road Tudor complex sells

307 - 315 Toorak Road, South YarraA DISTINCTIVE Tudor style complex in Toorak Road, South Yarra, with five ground floor shops and an upstairs office, has sold for $6.7 million.

Based on the assets annual rent of $296,021, the 638 square metre building sold on a low yield of 4.4 per cent.

Knight Frank’s Marcus Quinn and Paul Henley sold the asset at 307 – 315 Toorak Road.

Mr Quinn said the property offers the new owner plenty of value-adding potential, covering just 50 per cent of the 1000 square metre land area.

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