Weekly Wrap

Fitzroys Weekly Wrap - 21st September 2018

Posted on 21st September 2018

Retail Sale, 83-87 Smith Street, Fitzroy
After 25 years of ownership, the Norman Beischer Medical Research Foundation sold the 405sqm corner building to an investor for $5.1 million, at a 2.8% yield. Positioned on a 218sqm site, the property has 26m of frontage and is leased to bag retailer Crumpler, café Burnside, and Japanese restaurant Neko Neko. The Foundation had previously tenanted the building.

Retail Sale, Corner Burke and Riversdale Roads, Hawthorn East
The circa-1885 building overlooking Camberwell Junction, now home to eatery The Meat & Wine Co., sold for $4.75 million at a 4.05% yield. It was originally built for the English, Scottish and Australian Bank and was refurbished in recent years.

Retail Sale, 2 Croydon Road, Croydon
A private investor acquired the 492sqm retail and office property for $1.51 million from a private owner. It sold at a 4.1% net yield, with a five-year lease with options to Methven Professionals.

Retail Sale, 337 Swan Street, Richmond
The 180sqm showroom sold for $1.17 million, with a short-term lease to door and tap hardware retailer Elite.

Retail Lease, 241A Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Designer lingerie brand Kiss Kill is expanding in the CBD after signing a 3+3-year lease over the 24sqm shop at $66,000pa gross.

Retail Lease, Shop 3, 40 Market Street, Melbourne
Sunny Boy Café is on the move within the CBD, and will pay $74,800pa for the 100sqm space on a 4+4-year deal.

Specialised Asset Sale, 122 David Street, Dandenong
The vacant medical centre site of 850sqm has a 185sqm building and a permit for three practitioners, and changed hands for $1.661 million.

Office Sale, 12-14 Cato Street, Hawthorn East
A local owner occupier paid $1.45 million for the vacant top floor suite, which comes with eight car parks, for their move from Collingwood.

Office Sale, 2004 Malvern Road, East Malvern
Another owner occupier picked up the 85sqm strata suite with two parking spaces for $445,000 from a local private investor.

Office Lease, 260 La Trobe Street, Melbourne
Lennox College inked a four-lease over the 406sqm whole floor office within the A-C Building, on the corner of Elizabeth Street, at $152,250pa plus GST from owner Landream. Hungry Jack’s recently took up 500sqm on the ground floor for its new CBD flagship site.

Office Lease, 577-579 Church Street, Richmond
Residential builder Maybach Property Group has expanded its existing lease of 100sqm to a whole floor office of 302sqm, and will pay $156,000pa net.

Land/Development Sale, 102-106 Stephenson Street, Cremorne
Owners of four adjoining terrace houses sold the combined 546sqm, Commercial 2-zoned site to a local private purchaser for $7.1 million.

Land/Development Sale, 45 Vere Street, Richmond
A Melbourne-based developer paid $5.85 million for the 1,560sqm site, to a family that had held the asset for 25 years. Zoned Commercial 2, it has a 323sqm office and warehouse and a separate 1,000sqm building with short-term tenancies, and 81m of frontage.

Industrial Sale, 17-23 Gaine Road, Dandenong
Private investors traded the home of Australian Rollforming for $5.715 million, at a 6.2% yield. The 4,020sqm office and warehouse building is on a 7,756 sqm site within the Quantum Industrial Park and has two eight-tonne gantry cranes and 63 parking spaces.

Metropolitan office assets in season: Melbourne’s eastern suburbs have seen a flurry of office asset transactions, led by Hong Kong-listed Glorious Sun making two acquisitions totalling $28 million.

The company paid $18.4 million for the corner office building at 255 Whitehorse Road in Balwyn at a 4.5% passing yield. Tenants within the two-level building of 2,783sqm include Kidman Partners, and the final vacant space is being filled in the coming weeks, bringing the total return to around $875,000.

Glorious Sun also purchased the 2,348sqm 16 Lakeside Drive building in the Tally Ho Business Park in Burwood for $9.6 million. The Country Fire Authority occupies the ground floor and the first floor is vacant.

Close by, a China-based investor purchased the VicRoads headquarters at 12 Lakeside Drive for $25.5 million. The three-level, 4,509sqm building was purpose-built for the government agency in 1996, which has recently renewed its lease for three years.

News Corporation reportedly offloaded the 1 Chapel Street building in Blackburn, home of Leader Newspapers, for $30.2 million to Vantage Property Investments, which itself divested office assets in Mulgrave and Box Hill earlier this year for a total of around $24.5 million.

In Hawthorn, design and construction company Qanstruct offloaded the converted Congregational Church building for $9.85 million in a sale and leaseback deal, with an eight-year term plus options over the circa-1881 building that returns $500,000 gross.

It oversaw the overhaul of the building after taking over the 1,998sqm site in 2001, which now has 714sqm of office space over two levels.

South-east childcare centres continue to change hands: A Bentleigh childcare centre operating as Buckets Early Learning has sold to an offshore investor for $11.7 million, at a 5.53% yield. The 1,310sqm site at 188 Tucker Road has a 1,165sqm building area with an 870sqm underground car park, and is licensed for 144 places.

It follows the $11.3 million sale of a Nino Early Learning Facility in Elsternwick, currently being constructed at an historic mansion site, which traded at a 5.97% yield.

This year has also seen a private buyer pay $9.5 million for the brand-new 139-place facility at 1066 Centre Road in Oakleigh South, leased until 2042 and returning $600,000 per annum; and an investor acquire the Bentleigh East site at 359-361 Chesterville Road, leased to ASX-listed Think Child Care for $5.6 million, at a 5.85% yield.


Disclosure: The Fitzroys Weekly Wrap is for information only on transactions in the Melbourne property market. Fitzroys provides this information as a public service. We are not purporting that all sales and leases within this report were transacted by Fitzroys.