Swinburne University stumps up $45m for vertical city campus in Flinders Lane
Melbourne’s central business district will get another vertical education campus after Swinburne University pounced on a Flinders Lane property in a deal understood to be worth around $45 million.
The university put its foot on the historic eight-storey commercial building called Invicta House at 26-32 Flinders Lane, purchasing it from the private Lazarovits family who have held it since 1998.
The office, in the heart of chic Flinders Lane, is home to Greenhouse Backpackers, part of the Friendly Backpackers controlled by the Lazarovitses, and the Melbourne East Police Station.
The transaction was overseen by the university’s campus spaces office.
When contacted by The Age and Herald, the office’s director declined to comment. Other parties involved in the negotiations, Colliers International and Charter Keck Cramer, also declined to comment for commercial confidentiality reasons.
The building was sold by the Lazarovits family. Photo: Colliers International
Swinburne’s main campus is a sprawling cluster of buildings on the corner of Glenferrie and Burwood roads in suburban Hawthorn.
The university also has outpost campuses in Wantirna and Croydon and an offshore campus in Sarawak, Malaysia.
The popularity of its Glenferrie Road campus has sparked a mini development boom in its immediate vicinity where multiple apartments have been constructed offering accommodation to students.
The university is likely to turn the building into a vertical campus, following in the footsteps of other major education institutions, Monash and La Trobe universities, who have established city campuses.
The property is opposite the Nicholas building and close to Ross House in a celebrated part of Flinders Lane that features popular walkways Degraves Street and Scott Alley.
Two years ago Monash University took out a whole building with net lettable area of 37,300 square metres in property giant GPT’s campus-style office at 750 Collins Street.
The building at the bottom of Batman Hill in Docklands is a short distance from Southern Cross train station.
La Trobe University, whose main Bundoora campus is in Melbourne’s north, has a major presence in a Dexus-owned building at 360 Collins Street.
The Invicta House deal follows US funds manager AEW Capital buying a major 22-level office tower at 31 Queen Street for a yield around 5 per cent.
AEW purchased the tower from Challenger in a $200 million deal earlier this month.
Last week the Uniting Church put its eight storey office in Little Collins Street up for sale soon after gaining a planning permit to convert it to 27-storey hotel in a deal with developer Jonathan Hallinan’s BPM.
The mid-storey tower at 130 Little Collins, called the Uniting Church Centre, has price expectations around $35 million.
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