Vantage sells lakeside Melbourne office
A new development group led by Justin Liberman and Paul Solomon has bought an under-utilised office near the top of Albert Park Lake.
Shor Property + Development is paying c$26 million for 11 Queens Road.
The seller was Vantage Property Investments; it paid Denison (which had just taken over Viento) $15.95m in 2014.
Vantage also updated the 8501 square metre building including the lobby in 2023.
Also exposed to Queens Lane, the asset has 128 basement car parks too.
As well as backing from the Liberman and Solomon families – the latter is behind Moose Toys and holds a sizeable commercial real estate portfolio – Shor is controlled by Adam Rogers and Steve Fein.
Income, development upside
The 12 level Queens Rd building was offered as an investment with significant development upside – it is 72 per cent occupied to 37 tenants with a short weighted average lease expiry by income of 1.1 years, surrounded to two sides by significantly taller towers.
The 2326 sqm site is zoned Commercial 1 too – allowing multiple development outcomes including residential.
Shor will retain it as an office investment considering an apartment conversion or redevelopment longer-term.
The deal comes a year since Alta bought the 19 level office next door – #10 – with 9004 sqm, for $27m, to repurpose as apartments (continues below).
That site spans 2323 sqm.
The seller was Larry Kestelman.
A 19 storey building also sits at 12 Queens Rd – the recently completed Queens Domain, with 227 apartments.
Zoned Melbourne with a postcode of 3004, the pocket is about five kilometres south of the CBD.
Another lakeside deal
Eleven Queens Rd is Shor’s maiden acquisition.
It is looking for more assets, a statement confirming the deal said.
“Shor Property’s counter-cyclical strategy centres on acquiring assets below peak-cycle values and undertaking strategic planning and rezoning processes to unlock their highest and best use,” it added.
“The consortium has plans to pursue further sites under the Shor Property + Development brand with a particular focus on…office and retail assets as well as commercial sites with longer term development potential”.
It beat four suitors for 11 Queens Rd, offering to settle in 30 days.
“The level of enquiry on this campaign reflected a growing cohort of sophisticated private investors looking to secure well-positioned office assets at a point in the cycle where they can see both immediate value and longer-term optionality,” Cushman & Wakefield’s Oliver Hay, who brokered the deal with Daniel Wolman and Leon Ma, said.
Elsewhere in the area, Home is replacing 6-9 Queens Rd – formerly the Bayview Eden Hotel – with a build to rent asset containing 571 dwellings in a 20 storey building.
Aware Super with Barings and Hickory are also developing a BTR investment with 434 apartments at #50-52 Queens Rd, the former Carlton Crest.
The strip runs parallel to St Kilda Rd which has for decades seen office-to-residential building and site conversions.
The area is criticised for lacking retail-based activity centres.
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