City Shift as Provincial Victorians Buy Melbourne “Holiday House”

We’ve all heard about the sea changers – the growing number of Melburnians packing up their homes and heading to a new life in the coast or country.

Singles, couples and families are leaving in droves – trading in the city’s caffeine infused impersonal lifestyle for something more inspiring.

But while the sea-changers pack up their four-wheel-drives in search of a new home outside of the metropolitan area, they are passing a growing number of city shifters – those from provincial Victoria that are also looking for a change of scenery, and are setting up tent right in the heart of the city.

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MAB Unveils Docklands Newest Street: Millionaires Only

DOCKLANDS newest street – overlooking the water – and developed only with multimillion dollar townhouses – was launched earlier this month.

MAB Corporation sold all 18 low-rise homes marketed as Marina Residences prior to completion and for prices of up to $4.65 million.

The homes, each with water and city views, were developed over a reconstructed wharf in the developer’s NewQuay precinct. Each includes a plunge pool, four car garage, home theatre, home office and outdoor terrace.

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MAB Launches $350 Million Docklands Towers

ANOTHER year, and MAB Corporation is releasing another major Docklands project.

This time, the development – The Quays – will include two towers.

A south tower will rise 32 storeys and include 275 units. It will be the tallest building in MAB’s 5.3 hectare Docklands pocket.

A north tower will include 230 flats. At ground level, a walkway aims to create a new retail laneway, with cafes and shops.

The project (artist impression, right) will also include 95 serviced apartments. Residents within The Quays will be able to utilise hotel functions like a spa, pool, sauna, health club, gym and yoga studio.

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Australia Post to Sell Prized Melbourne Asset

GOVERNMENT owned goods and services provider Australia Post is offloading its most prized Melbourne asset – the former Australia Post Mail Centre on the south-west corner of Spencer and La Trobe streets.

The 1.2 hectare property, with a 10,400 square metre building, is being offered with vacant possession after a reported lease to hardware chain Bunnings last August did not proceed.

Wesfarmers controlled Bunnings is moving to multi-level inner city sites as part of a strategy to boost its inner-city presence, and outmuscle new Woolworths controlled rival, Lowes.

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Lend Lease Expecting $120 Million From Sale of Docklands Office

PROPERTY giant Lend Lease is expecting about $120 million from the sale of an as-yet-incomplete office in Melbourne’s Docklands – a near new city, effectively, on disused industrial land abutting the western edge of the CBD.

The 17,000 square metre office recently secured engineering firm Aurecon as an anchor tenant for 9500 square metres. Aurecom was formerly known as Connell Wagner

The building is due for completion in the second half of 2012.

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Construction Starts of Dockland’s Next Major Skyscraper, Melbourne

DOCKLANDS next major skyscraper should start appearing on city skylines later this year.

Sydney-based developer Mirvac has just started construction of its latest waterfront apartment tower, Yarra Point, on the corner of Lorimer Street and Point Piper Crescent.

Upon completion in 2013, the $200 million tower will soar 31-levels and include 201 flats.

When the project was launched last October, entry level apartments started at a staggering $500,000. Four bedroom “sky residences” have fetched $2.5 million.

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Deka Immobilien Investment to Pay $118 Million For South Wharf Office, Melbourne

GERMAN pension fund Deka Immobilien Investment is reportedly paying $118 million for the South Wharf Commercial tower in Docklands.

The sale, reflecting a yield of about 7.75 per cent, ends a saga to sell the office that has lingered since just before the economic downturn, in late 2007.

The office is part of the $750 million South Wharf precinct which also includes retail, residential and a hotel component. The office was sold by private developer Austexx, which owns the DFO chain, which is also for sale.

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MAB Sells NewQuay Shops, Docklands

MAB Corporation has sold two retail investments at its NewQuay precinct of Docklands for a total of $3.875 million.

The biggest premises at 24 NewQuay Promenade measures 427 square metres (about the size of four standard shops) and is leased to Metro Real Estate which pays a current rent of $255,000 per annum.

On that basis the $3.55 million sale price reflects a yield of 7.2 per cent.

A second and much smaller retail premises at 7 Caravel Lane sold for $325,000 and on a yield of 6.3 per cent.

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CBUS to Build New NAB Office at Docklands

DEVELOPER CBus Property has secured the National Australia Bank as tenant for an as-yet-undeveloped office in Docklands.

The 61,000 square metre, 15-level tower is set to be developed at 700 Bourke Street, and near National Australia Bank’s world headquarters, on Victoria Harbour (at 800 Bourke Street) which it first committed to a decade ago.

The new building will also include a child care centre, and retail, according to a CBUS media release, and published on the Melbourne Docklands website.

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Mirvac Gets Ready to market Sixth Docklands Skyscraper

SYDNEY-based developer Mirvac will launch its sixth Docklands skyscraper, Yarra Point, in October.

Mirvac will adopt a design strategy used at its Tower 5 complex nearby, and the Melburnian, in St Kilda Road, by targeting top-end buyers with a high quality product.

This is reflected in the sale price, where one-bedroom flats are expected to be priced from $500,000.

The distinctive $200 million tower, 31-level tower will include 201 apartments in one, two and three bedroom configurations.

Yarra Point will include a rooftop garden, communal barbecue facilities and a gym atop a fifth level podium.

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One of a Handful of Dockland Terrace Homes Hits the Market With $5 Million Price Tag

IF YOU like the idea of living at Docklands, but aren’t sold on moving to a high rise apartment – then one of a handful of terrace homes at Mirvac’s Yarra’s Edge precinct might be for you.

But with a price tag of about $5 million – the luxury of living at Yarra’s Edge’s only low-rise, strata free homes, is for a select few.

An associate director of Patersons Securities is selling a new four-level townhouse at South Wharf Drive, ahead of a move to Perth.

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Penguin Books Reportedly Moving to Docklands, Melbourne

PENGUIN Books is understood to be in advanced negotiations to lease new offices in Melbourne’s inner west.

Sources say the publisher, which is currently based at 250 Camberwell Road, near the Camberwell Junction, will lease around 8000 square metres at the Kuok-Walker controlled Goods Shed South, in Docklands.

It was just nine years ago the publisher leased 5000 square metres in Camberwell, an office building developed by Morry Schwartz’s Pan Urban on leasehold land owned by the St John’s Anglican Church.

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Marsh Mercer Reportedly Moving to Melbourne’s Docklands

ONE of the year’s biggest inner-city office lease deals is believed to be taking place in Docklands.

Its understood financial services giant Marsh Mercer will relocate from two CBD offices, at 555 Lonsdale Street, and 11 Exhibition Street, and move to a 23,000 square metre high-end office, in a pocket of Docklands controlled by the Kuok Group and Walker Corporation.

Marsh Mercer would be the latest in a string of financial services giants to relocate to Melbourne’s waterfront. ANZ and National Australia Bank are the two biggest tenants in the area.

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Vivas Lend Lease Announces Docklands Next Apartment Tower, Serrata

Serrata interiorDOCKLANDS next major apartment tower is set to take shape at 815 Bourke Street.

Vivas Lend Lease this month announced plans to develop Serrata, a 15-level, 144-unit complex, between Victoria Harbour and the Yarra River.

A Vivas Lend Lease representative says the development provides an opportunity for Generation Y “first home buyers” with a desire for city living to get into the market.

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Austexx Sells South Wharf Office For $115 Million

AUSTEXX – the owner of the $1.5 billion DFO retail chain – has offloaded an office building in Melbourne’s frantic South Wharf precinct.

German fund Deka Immobilien Investment is reported to be paying about $115 million for the 12-level office, home to Kraft, Baulderstone and shipping giant ANL.

The office was for sale at the peak of the property boom in 2007, but was withdrawn once the economic downturn took hold, while construction continued and the space was leased.

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Indian Restaurant Leases Prominent Retail Space at MAB’s New Quay, Docklands

AN upmarket Indian restaurant has leased a prominent Docklands retail space which has sat vacant for two years.

Shiraaz will replace the restaurant known as the Quay Bar and Brasserie, leasing 744 square metres of indoor and outdoor space at the ground level of 12 – 16 New Quay Promenade, a gateway building, within MAB Corporation’s New Quay precinct.

The building is prominent to anybody walking into New Quay from the CBD via Harbour Esplanade, and is at the eastern most edge of MAB Corp’s prominent piece of the $15 billion Docklands development.

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$300 Million Docklands Office Quietly Being Marketed For Sale

717 Bourke Street, DocklandsDOCKLANDS unluckiest office building has been quietly listed for sale.

The 717 Bourke Street office – and soon-to-be home of Channel Nine – is expected to sell for between $280 million and $300 million, reflecting a yield of about 8 per cent.

Last November, education service provider, and a reported minority owner of the building, Global Campus Management, went into voluntary administration, surrendering a 17,000 square metre lease over almost half of the building. That space was to have been occupied by French fashion school ESMOD.

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Docklands Next Retail Strip Taking Shape

THE inner-city’s next retail strip is slowly taking shape in Docklands.

Equiset, the development company owned and managed by the Grollo family, has filled about 1800 square metres, or six stores, at the ground level of Village Street, a thoroughfare connecting Bourke and Collins streets.

The western side of Village Street includes the 12-level A-grade office building that is now home to National Foods. The eastern side of the street, is the Goods Shed building, which is currently being refitted into boutique office space.

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Victorian Government to Hand Over One of Melbourne’s Largest Undeveloped Central Sites

THE State Government of Victoria is formalising a plan to redevelop one of central Melbourne’s largest undeveloped sites, at the riverfront junction the CBD merges with Southbank and Docklands.

Between the Mission to Seafarers building at the corner of Wurundjeri Way and Siddeley Street, and stretching almost the length to the Charles Grimes Bridge, the massive 1.24 hectare site, accommodating old industrial sheds in a precinct called Flinders Wharf, has a 230 metre frontage to the Yarra River.

A Registration of Interest campaign was quietly launched by the government this week, seeking advice from consultants and developers to propose a new future for the site, likely to incorporate offices, shops and apartment towers, possibly with a component of affordable and social housing.

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MAB Corp to Sell Prominent Docklands Restaurant

ONE of Dockland’s distinctive “waterfront pod” restaurants will be sold.

MAB Corporation is selling the glass two-storey building currently trading as the Berth restaurant and bar, with a street address of 45 New Quay Promenade, in the New Quay precinct of Docklands.

Berth currently pays $360,430 per annum to occupy the restaurant, and is committed to a five year lease, with three further options, giving it a wide berth to stay until 2030.

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Billionaire Lang Walker Snares ATO as Docklands Tenant

Lang WalkerTHE Australian Taxation Office has pre-committed to an unbuilt 38,000 square metre office building in Melbourne’s waterfront Docklands precinct.

Billionaire Sydney-based developer Lang Walker will build the $250 million office, which will be substantially bigger than the ATO’s original 25,000 square metre requirement. The ATO also operates from offices at Casselden Place, expiring 2017, and La Trobe Street.

It’s hoped the ATO building will start a development boom within the Village Docklands precinct, and within the wider Docklands area.

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Global Campus Management Administration Leaves Half a Docklands Office Building Vacant

ALMOST half of an unfinished Docklands office building will be offered for lease, after education service provider Global Campus Management – which agreed to lease space at 717 Bourke Street to accommodate fashion university ESMOD – went into voluntary administration last Thursday.
 
ESMOD was to have occupied 18,000 square metres of the distinctive 37,000 square metre building which will also be home to petroleum giant BP upon completion in July next year.
 
GCM is a minority shareholder in the Bourke Street building, on the south-west corner of Wurundjeri Way, which was developed by Babcock & Brown and architect Metier 3.

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