Time & Place pockets Hotel Lindrum as development play
Time & Place has purchased the historic Hotel Lindrum as a development play.
The high profile six storey building on 738 square metres at 26-30 Flinders Street is costing $50 million.
The vendor, private investor and Australian Jewish News publisher, Robert Magid, paid Cbus Property $15.69m in 2008.
The property formed part of a $35m portfolio which also included Sydney’s Harbour Rocks Hotel, which Mr Magid listed with Hotel Lindrum last month.
Both venues are leased to Accor as M-Gallery by Sofitel inns.
Hotel Lindrum
Penned by Ward & Carleton, 26-30 Flinders St was developed in 1900 for Griffiths Tea Merchants.
Two decades later, it was repurposed as the Herald’s headquarters, before becoming a billiards centre named after professional player Walter Lindrum and run by his niece.
In 1999, the building was converted into a 59-room hotel – considered one of Melbourne’s first boutique guesthouses – around a ground floor restaurant and bar.
Mr Magid retained the property as an investment, however last year, won approval to incorporate the heritage façade into a 30 level mixed use development with 77 hotel rooms and 68 apartments.
Mr Price will review this, possibly updating a scheme with a greater lower level hospitality component and upper floor offices.
The deal comes four weeks since Time & Place with the Buxton family’s asset manager and finance arm Corsair Capital outlaid $48m for a 2.1 hectare piece of Alphington’s former Amcor paper mill with plans for a Build to Rent and retail project.
Last October, Time & Place and Hacer spent $25m on a former Le Pine funeral home at the Camberwell/Hawthorn East suburb border (story continues below).
Spreading 2090 sqm, that site is earmarked for a seven level mixed-use but predominantly residential complex.
In East Melbourne, not far from Hotel Lindrum, Time & Place and Golden Age have nearly completed an 11 level office, Victoria Place, which they sold to ARA Asset Management and Quadreal Property Group for $328m on a funds through basis in February, 2020.
City’s most desirable block: developer
Mr Price described the Hotel Lindrum’s location as possibly the city’s most desirable block.
“The Lindrum is one of Melbourne’s most recognised buildings…sitting front row at the eastern end of the city, and next to one of [Harry] Seidler’s most cherished buildings [Shell House at 1 Spring St]),” he added.
“We see real value in the Parliament precinct, being the eastern end of the CBD, right into East Melbourne,” according to the executive.
“The intersection of the sporting precinct, CBD and East Melbourne’s historic terrace homes makes it a quintessentially Melbourne location and we love being a part of the area’s next iteration”.
At 32 Flinders St, beside the Hotel Lindrum to the west, GPT Group last year won permission to develop two office towers, of 15 and 39 floors, containing a total of c29,000 sqm of area.
Next to the Lindrum property, to the north east, the Besen and Roth families have earmarked a 33 level tower to replace Shell House’s Flinders Lane forecourt.
Mr Magid, the son of late esteemed developer and Twisties founder, Isador, was represented for the Flinders St sale by JLL’s Josh Rutman, Peter Harper, MingXuan Li and Nick Macfie.
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