Billionaire profits from slump in Melbourne office towers
Capital Gain
A billionaire and a fresh investor are looking to profit from a slump in office values, circling two CBD buildings with bids 30 per cent less than the tower’s recent peak prices as the city market continues to tread water.
Billionaire Harry Stamoulis is in due diligence to buy the former ASX House at 357 Collins Street for $190-$200 million, while low-profile investor Joe Cairns is understood to have paid less than $33 million for the office at 525 Flinders Street.
Cairns, formerly of industrial land developer and investor 888 Property Group, is believed to have snared the nine-level office building after a host of other potential buyers bowed out.
He joins suburban specialist Up Property making a debut into the city market. Up bought 50 Queen Street for about $45 million last month, on a 7 per cent yield.
Former real estate agent Paul Henley, who now heads up OneEast Capital, has been advising Stamoulis and the Mantzis family, which last year paid $40 million for Dexus’ 425 Collins Street.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Daniel Wolman, Oliver Hay and Leon Ma did the Flinders Street deal but declined to confirm the buyer or a price. Colleagues Leigh Melbourne and Nick Rathgeber also declined to comment on the 357 Collins Street deal.
The Flinders Street property was built on the historic fish market site and was a car park before it redeveloped it in 2009. A Uniting Church fund paid $50 million in 2011 before flipping it in 2012 to Swiss fund AFIAA for $50.8 million.
The 10,271 square metre building is on the corner of Flinders and King streets and 70 per cent vacant.
The 23-storey ASX House stood empty for 16 years until it was bought by Australand for $45 million in 2010 and then sold for $222.5 million to Frasers Property in 2015.
Further afield
Two Melbourne investors are looking further afield from their home town, buying properties in Adelaide.
An Officeworks at 87-93 Main North Road, Nailsworth, sold off-market for $11.3 million on a 5 per cent yield in March.
And a Dan Murphy’s at 56-60 Hutchinson Street, Mount Barker, in the Adelaide Hills, sold for $11.7 million reflecting a 5.2 per cent deal.
Stonebridge agents Rorey James, Kevin Tong, Justin Dowers, Michael Collins and Tom Morela were involved in the transactions.
“A-grade assets have been in short supply in the past two years because people hold on to them during uncertain times. That’s why these were sold off-market. They weren’t vendors coming to the market. We came to them with buyers,” James said.
Residential fires up
With expectations of more money to be ploughed into the residential market, development sites are back in play.
In the heart of Blackburn, an investor is selling a 6646 sq m site that’s been accrued over the 40 years.
The site, covering 4-8 Chapel Street and 5-15 Albert Street, includes several houses and gardens squeezed between the busy commercial strip along Whitehorse Road and Blackburn railway station.
Zoned Commercial 1, the site is destined for a high-density development and is expected to fetch more than $15 million.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Hamish Burgess, Joe Kairouz and Wolman, with Stonebridge’s Julian White, Andrew Milligan, and Chao Zhang have the listing.
Meanwhile, other development site vendors are flipping sites bought more recently that now have permits in place.
The Cushman team is selling a 3662 sq m site at 28-34 Service Street, Hampton, which now has a permit for a three-level, 32-unit apartment project designed by Fender Katsalidis.
Close to Hampton Village and the beach, the site is expected to fetch more than $16 million.
Noetic paid $17.32 million in 2022 and went through an extensive consultation process to get the plan approved after the previous owner spent three bruising years fighting the neighbours.
In Brunswick, the buyer of a scrap metal warehouse at 241–245 Brunswick Road, near the corner of Sydney Road, is flipping an 1179 sq m site that settled in February.
Contracts were exchanged two years ago for $6.8 million – and that’s what’s expected this time.
The site also comes with an approved development design by Cera Stribley for a nine-level, 56-apartment project.
JLL’s Jesse Radisich, Maddie Pizzey and Mingxuan Li have the listing.
Another site returning to the market is 11 and 15-19 Gracie Street, North Melbourne, which will face a new park in the future.
The vendors were after $10 million-plus last year, but the price has been slashed to more than $5.5 million in a bid to meet the market.
The 1068 sq m site is on three titles opposite the soon-to-be demolished Lost Dogs’ Home at 2-52 Gracie Street in the Arden redevelopment precinct. Allard Shelton agents Joseph Walton and Bill Makris have the listing.
Town centres
The first tranche of town centre development sites to sell since 2021 indicate the going price has settled at between $30-$35 million.
The latest to sell is the 14.1 hectare Aurora Southern Town Centre in Epping, which was bought by an investment syndicate for around $30 million.
The vendor, state land agency Development Victoria, declined to comment on the price, and nor would Stonebridge’s Justin Dowers, White, and Zhang who did the deal.
Late last year, the cashed-up Oreana Group, which is working on several retail projects in the new estates, is understood to have paid about $35 million for the Rockbank Town Centre.
“These recent transactions mark a genuine return of confidence in the town centre sector,” White said.
“Diligent groups are increasingly segmenting town centre sites – divesting residential and other site components to specialised developers,” White said.
Next up is the Sunbury Town Centre, 10.33 hectare site on Sunbury Road which is being marketed for about $30 million by Stonebridge and Colliers’ Tim McIntosh, James Wilson and Will Heffernan.
“It’s a rare opportunity to deliver a much-needed retail hub in an under-serviced yet rapidly growing region. Retail supply in the northern growth corridor is constrained, with new development failing to keep pace with rapid population expansion,” McIntosh said.
Holiday park
The Wynn family, who has owned Ocean Grove’s Ti-Tree Village for the past 40 years, is giving up managing other people’s holidays.
The 5775 sq m holiday park, close to the beach, covers three lots at 28-34 Orton Street with a blend of General Residential and Neighbourhood Residential zones.
Gross Waddell ICR agents Danny Clark, Andrew Waddell and Glenn Ye are running the expressions of interest campaign.
Clark said the site’s zoning provides scope for future development or keeping it as a holiday park.
It has 15 self-contained units as well as a house and restaurant. Agents are expecting about $9 million.
