Diabetes charity’s city headquarters sells with short-term leaseback
Diabetes Victoria’s headquarters at 570 Elizabeth Street sold for around $14 million.

Diabetes charity’s city headquarters sells with short-term leaseback

Diabetes Victoria has sold its long held headquarters on the city fringe.

Agents who worked on the deal were tight-lipped about the details but other property sources say the site at 570 Elizabeth Street sold for around $14 million.

That’s a tidy sum above the $12 million price quoted at the start of the campaign.

Sources also speculated the buyer is associated with the Chemist Warehouse group.

It would be another strategic move for the pharmacy retailer’s owners who were part of a syndicate that purchased the three-storey Kindness House on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy two years ago for $12 million.

Diabetes Victoria offered its Elizabeth Street fringe property for sale with a short-term lease back. The organisation is planning to relocate.

It bought the 1010 square metre property in 2001, paying $2.8 million. It’s on a 711 sq m site with frontages to Elizabeth and Berkeley streets at the gateway to the biomedical research and hospital precinct.

Colliers agents Oliver Hay, Matt Stagg, Daniel Wolman, and Leon Ma handled the transaction, with Charter Keck Cramer’s Tom Byrnes and Lachlan Devine acting as transaction advisor. They declined to give details on the price or the buyer.

But Hay said there were multiple bids from a range of owner-occupiers, investors and developers due its location.

Game on
Video game retailer EB Games has a new flagship store on Elizabeth Street.

EB Games has relocated from its four-level shop at 67 Swanston Street to 48 Elizabeth Street in the old My Chemist space.

It’s understood EB Games wanted to downsize. The smaller 192 sq m space has recently been used by The Book Grocer as a pop-up.

The shop is in the modern section of the 271 Collins Street complex, which includes a 10-storey heritage building and a 1980s-era seven-storey annex.

It was NAB’s head office from 1927 until the 1980s and was acquired by the Gabor and Kornhauser families in 2001 for $50 million.

Fitzroys agents Travis Keenan, Franklin Gikas and James Lockwood negotiated the lease.

EB Games has relocated from Swanston to Elizabeth Street.
EB Games has relocated from Swanston to Elizabeth Street.CREDIT:

In other moves, shoe retailer Sole Motive has just moved into 148 Little Collins Street from Queen Street on a three year lease; Sulwha Dessert Bar is also moving onto the strip; Union Kiosk has expanded to 10 Howey Place and Bent-Oh! is moving into Flinders Lane.

“Tenants are looking beyond the colds, flu and COVID of this winter and towards a big spring and summer,” Lockwood said.

“There is confidence that day-to-day trade will increase over the medium to long-term. We’ve already seen a bounce-back in nighttime activity and weekend visitation,” he said.

Country roads
Tenants are also moving or planning their moves in the suburbs. Retailer Country Road is moving out of the 500 Riversdale Road store in Camberwell Junction, where it has been housed for more than 35 years, up the road to 566 Burke Road.

Emmetts agents Charles Emmett and Xander Yeo negotiated the lease on the 558 sq m space. It comes just five months after the former NAB bank branch sold for $6.6 million.

Rents in the junction are ranging between $800 and $1000 a sq m.

Emmett said there had been a surge in leasing activity on the city’s premium suburban strips.

Other recent suburban deals include fashion retailer Gorman opening a new 220 sq m flagship store at 576-584 Chapel Street, Prahran; furniture retailer MCM House leasing a 290 sq m space nearby at 535-537 Chapel Street and Oroton Group leasing a new flagship shop at 1039 High Street, Armadale

Religious moves
The Salvation Army has listed its former Manningham Corps centre for sale and can expect a bumper $10 million for the landholding.

The 7241 sq m site at 35-41 Taunton Street, East Doncaster is opposite Zerbes Reserve and near Ruffey Lake Park.

Records show the Salvos have held the property since at least the mid-90s. It has General Residential zoning.

JLL agents Jesse Radisich, Mark Stafford and Mingxuan Li are handling expressions of interest.

The Salvos are frequent property traders. They sold 303-305 Royal Parade, Parkville to the University of Melbourne in 2014 for $25 million and ploughed the money into developing new facilities in Canterbury Road Ringwood.