News Limited to sell Blackburn’s former Leader Newspaper office
News Limited can expect to make about $12 million from the sale of an outgoing eastern suburbs office site, used for years by its Leader Newspaper staff.
The prominent 8,767 square metre site on the corner of Whitehorse Road and the busy Railway Parade in Blackburn, has a total road frontage of 162 metres.
At 160 Whitehorse Road, it could make way for several medium and high density apartments or offices with ground floor retail.
Knight Frank directors Ken Smirk and Michael Hede are marketing the block.
Leader staff relocated to a new Chapel Street office abutting 160 Whitehorse Road site about three years ago.
The Salvation Army is the most recent tenant to the Blackburn area, leasing two adjoining offices totalling 7,128 square metres in 2007, then selling its outgoing Hamilton Street, Mont Albert headquarters to a developer.
Blackburn has so far avoided high-density redevelopment, however skyscraper proposals have made their way to the eastern suburbs around it.
The biggest current proposal is a 38-level tower in the adjoining suburb of Box Hill, while a a 17-level building was recently proposed for a site abutting the Mitcham train station.