Chapter Group pays $15m for a front garden in Toorak

The properties, which currently form the front garden of a Toorak mansion, are now expected to make way for a four-level medium density residential complex containing some 20 dwellings and more than 70 car parks.

In 2015 the relatively new builder directed by former Goldman Sachs director Dean Lefkos and ex-Hassell architect David Lee acquired a collection of properties at the nearby corner of Orrong Road and Sydney Street in Prahran, opposite Lendlease’s Toorak Park development which is under construction.

Parkside Brighton East block snapped up by developer

CBD Development Group, which has in recent years proposed some of suburban Melbourne’s tallest apartment complexes, has purchased a unique development site beside a linear park in Brighton East.

The site in Brighton East was bought for about $5 million. Photo: Supplied

On Union Street, a quiet and tree-lined thoroughfare, the property includes two older-style homes across four parcels abutting the Little Brighton Reserve.

A representative from the developer confirmed the speculated $5 million sale. It is expected the site will make way for a low-rise apartment complex, perhaps like the nearby Bentleigh Centre, which the builder completed in 2008.

The deal comes eight months after an aged care provider purchased a 5741-square-metre block in the same street for $19 million. That site, which included a disused aged care facility, was expected to sell for about $11 million when it hit the market a few weeks earlier.

CBRE’s Julian White, Scott Orchard and Carl Hexter marketed the Union Street site.

Directed by Chen Guo Jing, who migrated to Melbourne from Asia 30 years ago, CBD Development Group has recently purchased some of the suburb’s highest-profile building blocks.

Last year it spent $18 million on a small shopping centre and an adjoining residential block in Essendon, which is now the subject of a 10-level apartment building application.

In late 2015 CBD Development Group paid Woolworths $31 million for an 8156-square-metre North Melbourne site being marketed as the Arden Gardens apartment complex (and which will include numerous residential buildings, the tallest rising 16 storeys).

In 2013 the builder – which recently relocated its headquarters to the CBD – spent nearly $9 million for the former Playspace warehouse near the corner of Sydney Road and Albert Street in Brunswick, north of town. Near the suburb’s train station, this block of more than 3300 square metres is making way for a 14-level complex which upon completion will be Brunswick’s tallest tower.

Caravan Park site re-sells

A partnership of two established developers – Brian Rule’s Brico and Brett Rogers’ Baracon – is acquiring one of the western suburbs’ most prominent sites.

The Brooklyn parcel at 1-9 Miller Street, until recently known as the Half Moon Caravan Park, is at a busy junction also connecting Francis Street and the Princes Highway.

From the 1880s until 2010, the site was controlled by the wealthy, locally esteemed Miller family, who in 1956 built the caravan park, which housed 73 residents when it shut a few years ago.

Jones Lang LaSalle’s Cameron Hunter and Josh Freezer marketed the 5022-square-metre vacant site with a permit for 28 warehouses.

The Industrial 3-zoned block has significant redevelopment potential, with showrooms (retail), childcare, self-storage and service stations touted in the property’s marketing as other potential uses. The parcel sold for more than $3.5 million.

The Lathamstowe mansion in Queenscliff has sold. Photo: Supplied
Queenscliff’s Lathamstowe sold

A grand Queenscliff property – built in 1883 by former Carlton & United Brewery owner Edward Latham as a gift to the Anglican Church for its clergy – has sold.

The Lathamstowe mansion was speculated to be valued at about $6 million when it hit the market a few months ago. The heritage-listed property at 44 Gellibrand Street was used as a bed and breakfast by the vendor, Loucas Adams, for several years. The incoming owner, however, will retain it as a private holding.

The church sold the 10-bedroom property at the south-west edge of Port Phillip Bay in 1993. On a 1640-square-metre block in the town’s centre, Lathamstowe was marketed this time around with plans for an extension and landscaped garden by Paul Bangay.

Kay & Burton’s Rollo Moore with Fletchers Queenscliff’s James Gladman were the marketing agents.

MAB Corporation executives Michael R Buxton and Andrew R Buxton. Photo: Matthew Bouwmeester

Michael Buxton buys South Melbourne office

MAB Corporation executive and BRW Rich Lister Michael Buxton has added to his personal property portfolio, purchasing a South Melbourne office building with redevelopment potential.

Mr Buxton  paid $9.1 million for  the concrete, four-level office building in Raglan Street, which was marketed last year with vacant possession.

The 1689-square-metre building sits on a 712-square-metre plot that agency Colliers International marketed as a “blank canvas with endless possibilities”. Zoned Commercial 1, the parcel sold against $8 million price hopes.

The strategic office will enjoy permanent CBD views, being at an edge of a precinct where high-rise development is allowed. Across the road from Mr Buxton’s building are low-rise, historic homes.

Mr Buxton is expected to retain the investment following a refurbishment. The office complex, with 19 car parks, has the potential to generate more than $400,000 in annual rent.