St Kilda stalwart’s late-night pizza ovens face closing time

Records show Topolino’s owner, Mathew Forte, acquired the two freeholds, covering 1770 square metres, in the 1980s when they cost just $811,000 in total.

It was a good buy. Fitzroy Street was deep in a grungy period, packed with drunks, punks, junkies, dealers and prostitutes. Just a few years later, trendy restaurants set up shop and property values and rents starting rising.

Fitzroy Street has struggled over the past decade since that era ended but Topolino’s has carried on.

The restaurant is for sale with vacant possession but potentially with a flexible short-term lease. The whole offering includes five shops, and an eight-unit apartment building accessed from Jackson Street at the rear and car-parking.

Next door is the award-winning Victorian Pride Centre, one of a number of new developments on the strip. Developer Fortis has embarked on a five-level project at No.61-73 and the Erdi Group’s new five-storey hotel at No.99-105 is near completion.

Stonebridge Property Group’s Nic Hage, Rorey James and Chao Zhang have the listing.

They declined to quote a price, but recent sales on the strip can provide a guide. Early last year, Airtrunk billionaire Robin Khuda paid $13,300 a square metre – or $21.32 million – for a 1603-square metre block of shops and apartments near the Esplanade, and Fortis paid $22.08 million for its site on the corner of Acland Street in 2023.

Those deals suggest a potential high of $23.5 million, but prices have softened since.

Footy towers

Footy season is over, and the Australian Football League is turning its attention to the old Seven Network headquarters and its own digs on the waterside flank of Docklands stadium.

The Allan government and the AFL have launched an expressions of interest campaign for the two sites at 140 and 160 Harbour Esplanade which cover about 2000 square metres of prime land. The widely anticipated move follows a $225 million stadium revamp.

Development Victoria and the AFL jointly own the sites and are looking for an experienced property partner with experience, capability and capital to get up a three-tower project.

There’s a potential 180,000-square metre space worth billions of dollars to be developed on the stadium’s doorstep.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Ross Hamilton and Daniel Wolman are running the campaign.

Growing, growing gone

Not so long ago, you could feed an apple or a carrot to the horses at the Kilby Park Stables in East Kew. Now the 4.08-hectare parcel of land, along the Eastern Freeway, is for sale. It’s been the Kilby Park Tree Farm for the past 25 years and comes with a 30 million-litre water bore and capacity for 18,000 trees.

The triangle-shaped plot is bordered by housing and the popular Hays Paddock playground and sporting fields. On the other side of the freeway is the Yarra River, the Yarra Trail paths and the Kew Golf Course.

Records show the Hays family sold it in 2001 for $1.25 million. It’s currently owned by retailing and broadcasting veteran Ron Hall, a former owner of the Reject Shop and the SEN group.

Gross Waddell ICR’s Michael Gross, Nick Meadows and Andrew Waddell are handling the campaign. The property is in an urban flood zone, so future options are limited, but it could be turned into yet another sporting ground or retained as a nursery. It’s offered with vacant possession and expected to sell for more than $5 million.

Another riverside nursery up for sale is Poyntons in Aberfeldie in the inner north-west. It’s the first time in 90 years the property, which is owned by the Poynton family, has come to market.

The 4.89-hectare property is on the border with Essendon at the intersection of The Boulevard and Vida Street.

It has 90 metres of frontage on the Maribyrnong River and is zoned General Residential. The nursery is on several titles and is offered with a short-term two-year lease returning $520,000 a year.

Savills’ Stephen Bolton, James Latos and Tanya Su and CPN Commercial Group’s Anthony Carbone and Peter Daris have the listing. It’s expected to fetch more than $10 million.

Healthcare deals

Melbourne-based syndicator The Property Advisory has made its first foray into the healthcare sector, snapping up Australian Unity’s Greensborough Medical Centre and Day Hospital for $32.5 million.

The centre in the north-eastern suburb is leased to several tenants including ASX-listed Healius, Lumus Radiology and Adora Fertility and returns more than $2.2 million in rent. That gives the deal a yield of 6.87 per cent.

TPA, which manages investments worth $443 million, has been monitoring the healthcare real estate sector for a while, according to TPA bosses Lucas Shannon and Hugh O’Brien.

“In our view, the healthcare sector became overheated in the lead-up to and during the COVID period when interest rates were at historic lows. The current higher interest rate environment has since created appealing opportunities for long-term investors,” Shannon said.

Australian Unity will use the funds to reduce debt and fund new projects, including a $67 million aged care project in Knoxfield. CBRE agents Marcello Caspani-Muto and Sandro Peluso did the deal.

Rare offer at Clifton Hill

A rare Clifton Hill office steeped in history is back on the market. The three-storey red brick building at 24 Groom Street, near the Eastern Freeway, started as a small boot factory in 1892 but became the Commonwealth Government’s Harness and Saddlery during World War 1 making important kit for the military.

The 925-square metre building is on a 340-square metre site. It was the Zig Zag Paper factory producing cigarette papers until 1973 when it was purchased by NCI Packaging for its head office.

Records show it last changed hands in 2021 when sports digital marketing firm, the Easey Street Group, paid $4.97 million. Easey Street is offering it for sale with a leaseback on two floors paying $266,817 a year and leaving the penthouse office free for a new (owner) occupant.