South Melbourne Home of 3AW, Magic 1278, to be Sold
Fairfax, owner of The Age, acquired the Bank Street building in 2007 when it bought Southern Cross Broadcasting, including 3AW and Magic.
The 3AW talkback station, whose hosts include Neil Mitchell, Derryn Hinch and Gabriel Gate, has been based in the building since 1991.
The sale of the three-level, 2600 square metre office is expected to reap more than $4.5 million for Fairfax. The site, which is widely tipped to be eventually transofrmed into high rise apartments, sits on a 1,441 squaer metre block between St Kilda Road and Kings Way, and is near other hgih rise developments.
Central Equity has been the most rampant deveoper in the area. Over the last fifteen years, it has developed apartment towers: The Capri, Parkside Towers, The Vista, The Metro, The Plaza, The Tower and the Melbourne Condos, on a former tramway site.
Lemon Baxter managing director Chris Curtain and Nick Bade are marketing 39 – 49 Bank Street, which will be sold with a short term leaseback to Fairfax.
Magic and 3AW employees will join other Fairfax Media employees at Media House. The building is under construction opposite Southern Cross train station on the south-west corner of Spencer and Collins streets.
Fairfax confirmed its move to Docklands, after selling The Age site at 250 Spencer Street for $66.1 million, to a development consortium including ISPT and Axiom Properties Limited. A piece of this site, with planning approval for two apartment towers of 51 and 40 storeys, is currently for sale as a development site for about $20 million.
