Fashion out and menswear in as global retailers take prime city shops

The deal could re-rate rents on the strip, which has become increasingly focused on luxury. Chanel and Christian Dior both own high-profile properties on the former rag-trading street.

Market sources report the previous rent of $450,000 a year has more than doubled to $1.2 million or $1500 a square-metre.

Meanwhile, Chinese discount variety store giant Miniso has snared a high-profile Swanston Street shop from which to ply its plastic homewares, plush toys, cosmetics and other bits and bobs.

Miniso is moving into 185 Swanston Street, a 424 sq m shop near the corner of the Bourke Street Mall that had been occupied by Lotte and JR Duty Free for the past 30 years. It’s understood the new rent has been set between $1-2 million a year.

Lotte, which also owns JR Duty Free, is understood to have pulled back from city retail locations to concentrate on its core business of airport duty free.

Miniso, which has dual listings on both the Hong Kong and New York stock exchanges, has not exhibited the best of health in Australia. Its local franchisee operator has collapsed twice in the past five years.

However, the company is expanding globally and opened a new 370 sq m shop at Westfield Doncaster in May.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Cam Taranto and Teska Carson’s Adrian Boutsakis did the deal.

There is a significant shift under way in the CBD retail core, Taranto said. “The internationals are back.”

“As major redevelopment projects along Bourke Street Mall near completion, we’re aware of several global retailers currently in advanced negotiations with others confirmed, including JD Sports, TK Maxx, Mecca, Nike and Telstra,” he said.

Porta timber

Cedar Woods has splashed out $50 million on the Porta Timber factory in Fairfield for a 300-unit mixed use project.

Porta, one of Melbourne’s oldest businesses, moved to the 11,670 sq m site at 224-256 Heidelberg Road in 1921 and the family which owns the company has held the land for more than 100 years.

The huge property sits on the corner of Yarra Bend Road, boasting city views and 250 metres frontage to swathes of parkland.

It has flexible Commercial 1 zoning which allows for plenty of development options.

LAWD agents Lukas Byrns, Paul Callanan and Peter Sagar handled the campaign.

Across the road in Darebin Council’s Northcote, where the zoning remains industrial despite potential city and park views, another family business has sold its premises.

The Rutledge family, who founded groundbreaking audio-visual technology company Rutledge Engineering, has operated out of 195-199 Heidelberg Road since 1998.

Last week, they sold their 3048 sq m site for $5.5 million to an industrial developer who has plans to redevelop the site with new warehousing units.

Stonebridge Property agents Dylan Kilner, Max Warren and Chao Zhang, with Gross Waddell ICR’s Danny Clark and Andrew Waddell negotiated the transaction. Untitled Property’s Peter Smyth was transaction manager.

There was plenty of interest from owner-occupiers looking to move out of Collingwood and Fitzroy, where rising property values were leading to higher land tax, Kilner said.

“Securing 11 formal offers shows just how deep demand runs for well-positioned industrial land, even where significant upgrades are required,” Warren said.

St Kilda Road

A former Edwardian laundry in St Kilda that was converted into 10 offices in the 1990s has been put up for sale by its several strata-title owners.

The building, known as The Gresham, is on 2872 sq m at 322-332 St Kilda Road, near the corner of Inkerman Street.

The old laundry, with its distinctive art nouveau facade, was central to St Kilda’s main shopping strip until the modernisation of the nearby Junction in the 1960s.

The building is covered by both commercial 1 and mixed use zoning and is expected to fetch more than $14 million.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Daniel Wolman, Hamish Burgess, Anthony Kirwan and Leon Ma are handling enquiries.

Up the road, in what was the leafy boulevard’s office strip, Shakespeare Property Group is about to take quite the haircut on its office tower, the Flight Centre’s old headquarters at 436 St Kilda Road.

Records show it paid $62.15 million for the building in 2020 as Flight Centre scrambled for cash amid the pandemic-related collapse in air travel.

It was a good move for the travel agent. Shakespeare, the property arm of Prime Value Asset Management is likely to get just $35 million for the 11-storey tower, which is 70 per cent vacant.

CBRE agents Nick Peden, Jamus Campbell, Kiran Pillai and Trent Hobart have the listing.

Suburban offices

Offshore training group AEMG Education has snapped up an office in Hawthorn, paying $7.5 million for 529 Burwood Road.

The 992 sq m double-storey office is on an 1174 sq m site opposite Swinburne University.

Savills agent James Latos, who did the deal with Julian Heatherich, Benson Zhou and Tim Grant, said the vendor had owned the property for more than 35 years.

“This is our team’s fourth recent sale of a vacant freehold office to an owner-occupier,” Latos said.

However, investors continue to creep back into the market. Nearby, on the corner of Riversdale Road, a private investor paid $4.31 million for 270 Auburn Road.

Gorman Commercial’s Jonathon McCormack, who negotiated the sale with Peter Bremner, said there was lots of interest from owner-occupiers for the partly vacant 738 sq m office.

“It’s certainly an owner-occupier market but this one was ultimately bought by a local investor,” McCormack said.

Servo sells

A Sydney-based investor has splashed out $11.78 million on a new servo in Clayton South in a deal reflecting a relatively buoyant 6.17 per cent yield.

The service centre at 548 Clayton Road, on the corner of Bourke Road, was developed by Jasbe Petroleum and completed in 2021.

The 4150 sq m centre includes a BP petrol station, a Carl’s Jr fast food joint, a car wash and two warehouses. They return $727,047 a year.

The deal was negotiated by Cushman & Wakefield’s George Davies, Raphael Favas, Oliver Hay and Leon Ma.

Seven offers were made for the servo, which is on a 6693 sq m lot at the gateway to the Clayton industrial precinct.