Ski tzar Grollo goes off-piste in East Melbourne

The Grollo Group confirmed the new digs will house the Buller Ski Lifts Group, Altiset and other associated tourism and property businesses which are currently based at 16 Harvey Street, Richmond.

It was a good deal for the Grollos. The archdiocese bought the mansion, part of the historic Burlington Terrace, from the Bionics Institute in late 2020 for $12 million.

The 1087-square-metre building is on an 892-square-metre corner block. The archdiocese is also selling 402-406 Albert Street – three terraces on a combined land parcel of 1100 square metres – which are probably worth between $4 million and $5 million each, and are under offer.

Stonebridge Property Group’s Julian White, Max Warren, Dylan Kilner and Chao Zhang managed the expressions-of-interest campaign under instruction from Charter Keck Cramer’s Jessica Crossland and Tom Byrnes.

The Grollo family, which also owns a half-stake in the Rialto tower, is a keen participant in the Victorian ski fields, historically in Mount Buller where it owns the resort infrastructure (though in July, it offloaded the Kooroora Hotel for $3.8 million.)

Early last year, the Grollos bought Hotham Airport, near Dinner Plain, for $6.7 million and have since lodged plans to build a worker accommodation hub on the airport land. The company has also taken over Bogong Village, between Mount Beauty and Falls Creek, to redevelop another worker accommodation project.

However, they are not in the running to buy the Allen Government’s 99-year operating leases for Mount Baw Baw and Lake Mountain.

In the Melbourne CBD, the Grollos own half a block of King Street down the hill from the twin-tower Rialto office, which Rino (and his brother Bruno) built in the 1980s. They jointly own the Rialto with GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. GIC bought out the Kuwaiti-controlled St Martins Properties for $644 million in 2020.

Whac-A-Mole on Flinders Lane

No sooner had the owner of blue chip office tower 101 Collins Street dusted off one Flinders Lane building and ensured its money-making views were protected, when another building started flaunting its height potential.

A three-level property at 101’s back door, on the corner of AC/DC Lane, is up for sale just six weeks after its neighbour at No.107-109 sold for $14.8 million – with restricted height limits.

The owners of 103-105 Flinders Lane are likely to make about $15 million for the three-storey, 1186-square-metre warehouse which they bought for all of £67,000 in 1956.

The Commonwealth Super Fund, which owns 101 Collins Street, had originally bought No.107-109 for $15 million in 2015 to stop a 43-level tower obscuring the views of top law firms and investment banks.

The fund ensured the longevity of those views by limiting development heights on the building. Now it’s back to square one in the game of Whac-A-Mole that it plays to keep the neighbourhood in check.

The fresh threat is on a 332-square-metre piece of land with a ground floor café, upstairs office and a basement nightclub leased to Bar Bambi.

That basement space, which opens onto the lane, was the original site of the Cherry Bar (since relocated to Little Collins Street) and the motivation for renaming Corporation Lane as AC/DC Lane 21 years ago.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Oliver Hay, Daniel Wolman and Leon Ma have the listing, with Alexander Robertson & Co.’s Kristian Peatling and Warwick Bramich.

Speaking of AC/DC, next month the City of Melbourne will be throwing a party to celebrate 50 years since the band played Long Way to the Top on the back of a flat-bed truck through Melbourne’s streets. There will be a lighting installation in the lane and a big gig at Federation Square.

New permits

The old Exploration Hotel, which featured in last week’s column, could be getting a new neighbour at its rear.

The razed site at 9-11 Exploration Lane received a permit this week for an eight-storey office building rising about 31 metres.

The 170-square-metre site, owned by retirement village developer Knowles Group, had been earmarked for a 130-room hotel in a joint venture with the late Jonathan Hallinan.

In 2018, the group tried to sell the land, with a permit for a 34-storey hotel, for about $50 million, but there were no takers. The Knowles Group paid $2.15 million for the land in 2010.

Wash-up from Lion’s collapse

The Lion Property Group collapse is washing its way through the market with a block of flats in South Yarra selling for $6.1 million – 25 per cent less than what it fetched in 2023.

Records show Drake Developments’ Colin Drake settled 1-17 Adams Street, South Yarra last month, just as the $130 million Lion Ponzi scheme totally unravelled.

Drake said he was planning to build six townhouses on the 774-square-metre site. They will replace the 14 vacant 1950s-era flats near the corner of Toorak Road facing Fawkner Park.

The new plan will also replace the costly four-level seven-unit design, which Lion acquired in 2023.

Fitzroys’ Lewis Waddell, Ben Liu and David Bourke handled the deal.

South Melbourne auction

Former Carlton & United Breweries boss Peter Filipovic and his investment partners Dave and Merv Shannon are offloading a property which came as part of their $20 million Bells Hotel purchase.

The 155 -square-metre shed around the corner at 52-54 Tope Street is going to auction next week and is likely to fetch about $1.7 million.

The single-storey warehouse had been used as extra function space for the pub. Stonebridge agents Dylan Kilner and Max Warren have the listing, but declined to comment on the property.

Up for auction on the same day is the freehold of the Park Street Pasta & Wine at 268 Park Street on the corner of Perrins Street.

Park Street Pasta & Wine has recently renewed its five-year lease, which comes with two five-year options and returns $95,000 a year in rent. That puts its likely price at more than $1.8 million.