Commercial and residential property news
MELBOURNE’s Besen family has spent $67 million buying a half share interest in one of the CBD’s most distinctive “gateway” buildings, 1 Spring Street.
Daniel Besen, the son of shopping centre magnate Marc, purchased a 50 per cent stake in the 28-level 1 Spring Street office on the corner of Flinders Street, on a yield of 7.5 per cent.
Record Realty was the vendor.
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PRAMERICA, US-based global real estate investor, is reported to be paying about $75 million for a 16-level office building in Melbourne’s CBD.
The 16,200 square metre office at 575 Bourke Street was offloaded by the Valad Property Group’s V Fund. The fund manager acquired the asset for $50.87 million in 2005.
Pramerica’s acquisition, reported in The Australian’s Primespace section, is the latest in a string of national commercial assets.
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THE falling-out of two of Melbourne’s biggest private developers will be played out publicly at the end of the month when agents auction a landmark city office building – on court orders.
The imminent sale of the former Ansett headquarters at 501 Swanston Street (pictured, right), for a price expected to surpass $50 million, is also fascinating those within the real estate industry for being likely to smash the record price paid for a CBD office at auction.
Interestingly, each of the co-owning vendors of the building, Vince Giuliano, head of PDG Corporation, and Mario Salvo, director of Salvo Property Group, is expected to bid for full control of the asset.
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A HISTORIC CBD property, purchased by barristers almost 30 years ago, and occupied as legal industry offices since, is expected to fetch about $5 million at auction next month.
Seabrook Chambers, at 573– 577 Lonsdale Street (pictured, right), was for years a warehouse facility, and later, between 1968 and 1979, home to Seabrook Wines.
Built in 1854, the double-storey bluestone building includes about 979 square metres of lettable office space and sits on an approximate 411 square metre block. It is being sold with vacant possession.
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SYDNEY-based fund manager Charter Hall can expect some $25 million from the sale of a Melbourne CBD office it bought for $32 million in September 2007 – just weeks before the last commercial property market peak.
A spokeswoman said the Charter Hall Core Office Fund will use moneys from the sale to invest in larger, prime opportunities.
The asset on offer at 150 Queen Street (pictured, right), on the corner of Bourke Street, was developed in the 1960s and known for years as the Prudential Building.
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STAWELL Chambers, the free-standing, historic office that was for years occupied by solicitor Isaac Brott, has sold.
The building at 493 – 495 Little Bourke Street, opposite the southern boundary of the Supreme Court in Melbourne’s legal precinct is speculated to have traded for about $4 million.
Days after an auction last Friday, a “sold” sticker appeared on a board outside the 121-year old, four-level 650 square metre office (pictured, right). But Savills directors Nick Peden and Clinton Baxter declined to comment on any part of a deal when contacted by The Age.
ONE of the Melbourne CBD’s few remaining ghost towers has sold to a Chinese developer for $45 million.
The 21-level Communications House at 199 William Street (right) includes a 19,500 square metre office that has been vacant for more than ten years. The asset was offloaded by another Asia based investor with the registered company name Memo Corporation.
The building’s site area is 3318 square metres and the building is in the heart of what is known as the Melbourne CBD legal precinct. It’s residential redevelopment potential was touted throughout marketing.
CHALLENGER Diversified Property Group has paid $81 million for an A-grade office at 31 Queen Street in the Melbourne CBD.
The purchase price equates to a yield of 8.17 per cent. FKP sold the 27-level, 19460 square metre office.
A copy of Challenger’s statement about the transaction is copied below.
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QUEEN Street’s historic Lombard Building, in Melbourne, sold to a private investor at auction earlier this month for $9 million.
Recognised by Heritage Victoria as one of the city’s first office blocks developed with passenger lifts, the extravagantly designed eight-level, 2370 square metre building sold on a yield of 6.5 per cent, based on the asset’s annual income of $588,000.
Savills directors Clinton Baxter and Nick Peden received 67 bids from five separate bidders, before 15 – 17 Queen Street, which was built in 1888, sold to a Melbourne-based investor.
In July, another historic CBD building at 167 – 173 Flinders Lane sold for $13.31 million, to businesswoman Carol Schwartz.
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ONE of the first Melbourne CBD office blocks to be developed with passenger lifts – the Lombard Building at 15 – 17 Queen Street, has hit the market for sale and is expected to sell for about $8 million.
The eight-level building, developed in 1888 has an office area of 2370 square metres and is fully leased.
Heritage Victoria describes the building as a boom style Victorian office, developed just before the 1890s economic depression, which reflected an unashamed expression of the aspirations and success of its owners.
It added the skyscraper’s height demonstrated the “liberating effect” of the lift.
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A CONSORTIUM including Babcock & Brown, education facility Global Campus Management and design firm Metier3 are believed to be close to offloading a Melbourne office for about $240 million.
The distinctive 37,000 square metre office at 717 Bourke Street will soon be recognised as the new home of Network Nine, which leased space at the Docklands building after selling its long time home at Bendigo Street Richmond to Lend Lease.
BP Australia, AIG, Marsh Australia, Telstra and the Financial Ombudsman Service are other tenants at 717 Bourke Street.
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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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HIGH rise apartment developer Mario Salvo has decided to sell a CBD office investment he purchased at a low point in the commercial property market last year.
Mr Salvo can expect around $17.5 million, sources say, for the 38-year old, 11-level, 4781 square metre office at 128 Exhibition Street. He paid AMP Henderson Global Investors $15 million for the asset last October.
The building is opposite what was the Southern Cross Hotel, which has been recently been redeveloped into a high rise compound with a new retail laneway and offices off both Exhibition and Bourke streets.
MUSIC promoter Michael Coppel is offloading a low-rise office building with redevelopment potential at one of the CBD’s busiest intersections.
Mr Coppel can expect to make about $12.5 million, sources say, from the sale of 389 – 391 Swanston Street, at the north-west corner of La Trobe Street.
The site is almost encapsulated by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology – a possible buyer – and opposite Melbourne Central and the State Library of Victoria.
Hungry Jacks leases the ground floor of the three-level, 1355 square metre building, which returns a total annual rent of $610,987.
Read moreAUSTEXX – 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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SOUTH Australia’s Motor Accident Commission has reaped a speculated $28.4 million from the sale of a Collins Street office building it has owned for almost twelve years.
Based on the building’s annual rental income of $2.1 million, the 38-year old, 17-level building at 356 Collins Street sold on a yield of 7.5 per cent, a tightening of about 1 per cent on the average yields this time last year, reflecting a strengthening in the CBD office sector.
The 7211 square metre building is considered to be in Collins Street’s best pocket, a block from the Flinders Street Station, Bourke Street Mall and Swanston Street.
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HAVING paid La Trobe University about $15 million for La Trobe Street’s distinctive Argus building in March, the owner of education enterprise Melbourne Institute of Technology, Shesh Ghale, is reweighting his property portfolio.
Mr Ghale has listed for sale a B-grade office tower once known as the Euro Asia building, at 388 Lonsdale Street, on the north-east corner of Hardware Street, and near the Hardware Lane cafe precinct.
Mr Ghale is reported to have paid $12.1 million for the office in May 2004, eventually filling the 13-level, 6618 square metre building for his education business.
Read moreTHE NURSES Board of Victoria has reaped a healthy $13.85 million from the sale of two adjoining office buildings at the Docklands-end of Little Collins Street.
The buildings at 595 and 597 Little Collins Street cover a site area of 1248 square metres, and were said to have aroused interest by residential developers.
In the end however, the low-rise buildings went to an investor who will lease them as offices. Savills Clinton Baxter and Ryan McCormack marketed the sites.
Read moreAUSTRALAND has paid $45 million for the former Australian Stock Exchange building at 357 Collins Street. The vacant 22,000 square
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LA Trobe University has offloaded its asbestos-riddelled Argus newspaper building for $15 million, after spending $34 million trying to get a project off the ground.
Education entrepreneur Shesh Gale, owner of the Melbourne Institute of Technology operation which targets international and domestic students, plans to redevelop the 84-year old building into a teaching facility.
The Australian reports Mr Ghale will spend about $50 million on the renovation, which should be completed by the end of 2011.
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LOCK the date into your diary: 2015 should see the demolition of one of the CBD’s more prominent eyesores.
The spectacularly located, mission brown, 35 Spring Street office building, opposite Treasury Gardens may seize functioning as an office, 41 years after it was built.
Vendor, the Over Fifty Direct Property Trust, will sell the building with plans for a predominantly glass, 39-level, 165-unit glass apartment complex.
Read moreHENKELL Brothers has paid $34 million for a Melbourne CBD-fringe office building, opposite Flagstaff Gardens.
The 383 King Street building, in West Melbourne, last sold for $41.2 million in 2006, to two Trinity Groups entities, according to the AFR which reported the sale.
The 12,975 square metre office is leased to the National Australia Bank until 2013, but offers redevelopment potential with CBD views that will never be built out.
A HISTORIC building at the city’s northern tip, famous for being the long-time home of Evan Evan Flags, has sold
Read moreSELF made millionaire Mario Salvo has paid $15 million for an 11-level office building, in a burgeoning pocket of the CBD.
The 128 Exhibition Street office – which failed to sell after a public campaign 18 months ago – was offloaded by AMP Capital Investors, which paid $5 million for the asset in 2000.
The building will be retained as an investment in Salvest Capital, Mr Salvo’s newly formed commercial real estate investment company, which is directed by prominent Sydney-based property executives Hamish Bowman and James Maitland.
BECTON Investment Management has quietly offloaded a CBD building it purchased at the peak of the market two years ago.
The 446 Collins Street office building is speculated to have sold for about $21 million, reflecting an approximate 7.1 per cent yield, based on the building’s annual net income of about $1.5 million.
Allard & Shelton directors Patrick Barnes and Joseph Walton marketed the 11-storey, 5,543 square metre office, but declined to elaborate on a buyer or price.
BRITISH fund manager New Star has sold its Customs House office building in the Melbourne CBD at a 30 per cent less loss to the price it agreed to pay last March.
New Star will make “close to $50 million” from the sale of the 18-level office building at 414 La Trobe Street – far less than the $67 million it paid Investa for the renovated 19-year old tower, last year.
The transaction is the latest in a string of major Melbourne CBD office sales this year, including 303 Collins Street, 350 Collins Street, 473 Bourke Street, 120 Harbour Esplanade (Docklands), and a half share in 1 Spring Street.
Read moreCOLLINS Street’s National Trust listed London & Lancashire Building sold after auction last Friday for for $7.5 million to a private investor.
The 1,927 square metre, seven-level freestanding office with roof-top terrace, is expected to undergo a renovation before being leased to the market as boutique offices.
