Pask Group paying c$22m for RANZCOG HQ
EXCLUSIVE
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) is selling its East Melbourne headquarters to Queensland developer Pask Group.
College House, at 254-260 Albert Street, is trading for about $22 million.
Opposite Fitzroy Gardens, the RANZCOG site includes a double-storey residence-converted-office, constructed in 1873 – which can’t be razed.
However, the airspace can be built into.
As such, JLL marketing agents Stephen Kelly, Michael Godfrey, James Thorpe and Alex McColl promoted the 1533 square metre Commercial 1 zoned holding as a development play incorporating the heritage facade.
The agents declined to comment about any part of their sale when contacted.
The not-for-profit RANZCOG plans to relocate elsewhere in the city fringe post settlement.
East-facing Eastbourne residents about to learn a view is a privilege not a right
Buyers who just settled and moved into east facing apartments within Freemason Victoria and Mirvac’s neighbouring The Eastbourne complex should be most concerned about the RANZCOG sale: Pask Group could feasibly build a tower the same height (about 30 metres, or up to about 14 storeys).
The Eastbourne was famously well received by prestige buyers in 2016 when more than $300 million worth of units sold off-the-plan in three days.
But the East Melbourne prestige apartment market is flawed too – with many flats at 150 Clarendon Street, which also faces Fitzroy Gardens, selling at a loss in recent years.
Opposite Treasury Gardens, in the city, CBUS Property is replacing the former Mercure Hotel at 13-23 Spring Street with a 35-storey high-end residential project.
It recently completed construction of a 43-level residential building at 35 Spring Street.
A little further north, near Parliament train station, Golden Age Group last year sold 85 Spring Street after a campaign to build luxury apartments on the site didn’t garner adequate pre-sales.
Pask Group an active Melbourne builder
Last July, Pask Group acquired an 8.8 hectare piece of a 25.8 hectare farm in Mickleham, in Melbourne’s north, from a family which held it for 84 years.
This land is expected to make way for a housing estate.
In 2016, the builder agreed to buy the 67-hectare Kingston Links Golf Course in the city’s south east from the LaManna family.
This Rowville site has since been rezoned to allow for a low rise residential village, Bankside.
Pask Group has recently developed a prestige apartment complex, The Millswyn, in South Yarra, near the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Its Melbourne portfolio also include projects in Berwick, Clyde North, Greenvale and Point Cook.
More than 20 years ago it built the Sovereign Crest master-planned estate with 670 lots, also in Rowville.
Pask Group was established by Neville Pask, who died in 2018 as Queensland’s fourth richest person.
The company is run nowadays by his son, Dean, who is based in Victoria.
The division acquiring 254-260 Albert Street, East Melbourne, is headquartered in Gold Coast’s Southport.
