Grollos to relinquish control of nightclub strip in Rialto backyard
The Grollo Group has listed for sale its prized CBD holdings on King Street – behind the Rialto towers – marking the end of the Grollo family’s control of the nightclub precinct and plans to redevelop the area all the way down to Flinders Lane.
The properties are expected to fetch about $45 million. The 1487 square metre land parcel houses five buildings, including Inflation at 54-60 King Street which was purchased in 2018 for $17 million.
There has been some complex restructuring of the properties’ ownership since April 2020 when the Grollo Group’s joint-venture partner in the Rialto towers development, the Kuwaiti government-owned St Martins, sold its half share in the office towers to GIC and Dexus for $635 million.
Two months later, the Grollo Group bought St Martins’ 50 per cent share in the Rare Steakhouse, at 42-44 King Street, and the Grain Store, at No.46, for $8.69 million.
Records show the Grollos acquired the Kuwaiti government’s stake in Inflation in November 2022.
JLL agents Josh Rutman, Nick Peden, Will Connolly and MingXuan Li are handling the expressions of interest sales campaign.
The Rialto towers were developed in the 1980s in a joint venture between Grocon and St Martins. Grocon, established in 1948 by Luigi Grollo, built a string of major buildings in the CBD under the stewardship of his sons, Rino and Bruno.
The brothers split the business in 2000, with Bruno Grollo retaining Grocon and the family of Rino Grollo keeping the stake in the Rialto buildings.
Now led by Lorenz Grollo, the Grollo Group recently purchased the Mount Hotham Airport for $6.5 million. The company also owns the Mt Buller Chalet and other hospitality and retail properties in the Victorian ski fields.
The latest move comes as fund manager Salter Brothers applies to build a new 32-level hotel and office next door to the Rialto towers, where an Intercontinental Hotel already operates over the historic Wool Exchange and Rialto buildings at 487-503 Collins Street.
Salter Brothers paid $119.7 million for the property in 2015.
Lonsdale
A three-storey building housing a nightclub in the CBD’s Greek precinct has sold to a hospitality group for $9.1 million.
The property, at 189-191 Lonsdale Street, is opposite QV – the office, apartment and retail complex built by Grocon in 2003 on the grounds of the old Queen Victoria Hospital.
Between 1897 and 1907, the 467 sq m building served as the Melbourne Dental Hospital. It is on a 204 sq m piece of land, giving the deal a land value of $44,607 a sq m.
The vendor, the Conos family, established the first Greek restaurant in Melbourne and pioneered the city’s café culture. They bought the property in June 1985 for $840,000.
The sale was handled by Alexander Robertson’s Kristian Peatling and Warwick Bramich and Cushman & Wakefield’s Oliver Hay, Anthony Kirwan, Daniel Wolman and Leon Ma.
Still in the CBD, Hampton Property Group is having another crack at selling 565 Little Lonsdale Street, in the west end.
The two-level office building is on a 336 sq m site on the corner of Manton Lane, nestled in a forest of towers.
The property – once home to property lawyers Best Hooper – is opposite the rear of Lend Lease’s 485 La Trobe Street and has a permit for a 26-level project.
Hampton Property Group paid $6.62 million for the site in 2017 and lodged plans for a hotel. It changed tack in 2020 to a strata project dubbed Bastion, but nothing has gone ahead.
The property, built in 1923, went up for auction a year ago but was withdrawn. It is on a 336 sq m parcel of land and is expected to fetch more than $10 million.
Stonebridge agents Julian White, Max Warren and Chao Zhang, along with Cushman & Wakefield’s Hay, Kirwan and Ma, have the listing.
Up the street, Ma sold 395-397 Little Lonsdale Street before auction in July to an off-shore buyer for a price believed to be in the low-$6 million range.
Lindrum Hotel
Developer Time & Place has won approval to change its plans for the Lindrum Hotel, at 26-30 Flinders Street, from a new hotel and apartments to commercial.
Records show the City of Melbourne granted an amended permit to Time & Place on September 15, after it applied for a change in June.
Time & Place paid Sydney publisher and property investor Robert Magid $49.23 million for the site in May. The move follows the developer’s successful leasing of 200 Victoria Street to the State government last month.
The historic Flinders Street site is opposite the proposed office project to be constructed over the Jolimont rail yards, which Mirvac is widely believed to have won the right to develop.
The Lindrum is a 59-room boutique hotel, with a billiards room, bar and restaurants.
Named after world champion billiards player Walter Lindrum, the hotel opened in 1999 on the site which had been home to Lindrum’s Billiard Centre for many years.
Truganina industrial
LOGOS Property Group has launched a $250 million turnkey industrial estate in Truganina, in Melbourne’s west, on land previously earmarked for a new James Hardie fibre cement factory.
The 125,000 sq m of space on offer should go down well in a market that is marked by historic low industrial vacancy rates.
The new estate is located inside LOGOS’ 87-hectare Troups Road Logistics Estate and offers a chance to build and own the entire 125,000 sq m, or take a chunk as small as 8000 sq m.
Last year, LOGOS and James Hardie embarked on a joint venture to develop a new $250 million factory on the 20 ha estate at 435-503 Mt Atkinson Road.
However, new management at James Hardie nixed the deal and opted instead to upgrade capacity at other existing facilities in Sydney and Brisbane.
Records at the Environmental Protection Agency indicate James Hardie lodged an application to run the factory in late January before pausing the process in March. Its licensing application was formally withdrawn in August.
JLL’s Ben Hegerty, Peter Blade, Joel Scully and James Jorgensen have the listing.
“There is a critical shortage of industrial land across the eastern seaboard and land that is ready for development is largely owned by major investment funds and available for leasing only.” Scully said.
