Fund-through deals powering small office buildings

Anthony Wilson’s Terraplex is selling a shop at 358 Clarendon Street, in the heart of the South Melbourne village, with an office at the rear. Dixon Kestles agent Simon Regan is auctioning the property on December 9 and expecting about $2 million.

Joint venture

Franze Developments and the Sampieri Group have also turned to a fund-through sales process for their 430-438 Chapel Street site.

They are selling a seven-level, 3148 square metre building through Gross Waddell ICR agents Danny Clark, Michael Gross and Alex Ham.

The joint venture paid $11 million for the site in 2018. It’s close to the Jam Factory redevelopment and is expected to fetch more than $40 million.

Developers are counting on companies looking for smaller buildings after the latest pandemic outbreak with the ability to occupy and control whole floors.

Chow sells

United Asia Group’s Nicole Chow has sold almost all her commercial holdings at 33 Flemington Road, where she developed the 20-level North apartment project.

The 102-bay, two-level car park is the latest part of the building to hit the market, and is expected to fetch about $5 million.

Opposite the Parkville bio-medical precinct, the car park is leased to Melbourne Health and services local healthcare workers. It returns $203,237 a year in rent.

Colliers agents Alexander Leggo, Anthony Kirwan and Leon Ma are handling expressions of interest for Ms Chow, who has already sold several shops and offices.

The offering comes fresh from the sale of a UAG development site in Kensington.

A joint venture between Macquarie Bank and the Partner Group is understood to be planning a build-to-rent project at 346-350 Macaulay Road.

UAG paid a hefty $35 million for the 8803-square metre site — formerly home to Vision Australia — and is believed to have sold it for about $50 million.

Records show a caveat has been lodged by Intertrust Australia, the local arm of Amsterdam-based Intertrust, which is understood to be the source of some of the capital funding the project.

That deal was handled by JLL’s Josh Rutman, Noral Wild and David Hill with Colliers International’s Trent Hobart, Hamish Burgess and Jozef Dickinson.

Catholic college

The Catholic Church’s school arm has snapped up Southern Cross Education Institute’s West Melbourne campus.

The Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools will expand the campus of Simons Catholic College — located across the road — into 52-58 Chetwynd Street. The 1455-square metre building is on a 1000-square metre parcel of city-fringe land.

SCIE bought the office building in 2017, paying $6.5 million. West Melbourne properties are trading around $10,000 a square metre, which gives the deal a value of about $10 million.

NSL Property Group’s Guy Naselli handled the transaction but declined to comment on the price.

Five bidders competed for the property, with its education rating proving highly attractive, Mr Naselli said.

SCIE has other campuses in North Melbourne. Simons College’s West Melbourne campus houses its year 7 to 9 students.

Regional shops

A row of four adjoining shops in the heart of Healesville have been snapped up by a local investor offering a very short 14-day settlement.

The shops at 260-262 Maroondah Highway fetched $3.97 million, reflecting a yield of 4.5 per cent.

Stonebridge Property Group agents Nic Hage, who did the deal with Rorey James and Kevin Tong, said the return had set a new benchmark for the Healesville strip.

Seven bidders had missed out on the property, Mr Hage said.

Meanwhile, a portfolio of 12 shops, offloaded by a single vendor with interests in the south-east of the state, has fetched a total of $9.32 million.

The eight strata-titled and four freehold properties were amassed over a 25-year period and sold to 10 separate investors.

The deal reflected an average yield of 5.36 per cent which is very strong given their locations around Gippsland.

The portfolio was sold by the Stonebridge team, including Sarah Xi.

Buddies centre

An international investor has paid $9.51 million for a childcare centre in Glen Huntly, reflecting a sharp yield of 4.5 per cent.

The Buddies Early Learning centre at 81 Grange Road opened in 2017 and has a 15-year lease.

CBRE agents Sandro Peluso, Jimmy Tat and Marcello Caspani-Muto acted for the vendor. It’s the latest in a string of strong childcare centre deals.

Coolest street

Eager investors are clearly undermining Smith Street, Collingwood’s “coolest street in the world” award with hot levels of enthusiasm.

At an auction on Wednesday, eight bidders pushed the price of 110-112 Smith Street 37 per cent above reserve to $4.79 million. The yield reflected a sharp 2.88 per cent.

The 329-square metre shop is on a 379-square metre piece of land on the corner of Peel Street, opposite the Grace Darling pub.

JLL agents Josh Rutman, Tim Carr and MingXuan Li handled the auction for the vendors who paid just $70,000 in 1975.

Next up is 388 Smith Street, the old Mag-Pie Shop, where a new business trades from its traditional black-and-white painted facade.

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