No auction action for Leonard Joel property sale

The former school’s potential value is between $12 million and $15 million, but the campaign’s outcome will depend on the property’s future use.

“Investors like it because it has a great tenant. Others are interested for their own occupation, but it’s also a major piece of land that has developers very interested,” Mr James said.

Leonard Joel has one three-year option remaining on the 1874 school house, designed by architects Crouch and Wilson, masters of the gothic touch.

The school closed in the mid-1990s with most of the playground turned over to housing.

The 1443-square metre, two-storey building is on a remaining 3105-square metre parcel of land at 333 Malvern Road.

A coming rent review will have Leonard Joel paying around $509,000 a year, a tidy sum considered to be under current market rates.

Records show the Joel family sold the school in 2015 for $8 million to a company now controlled by Hickory founder Michael Argyrou.

Old beach hut

Around the corner on Chapel Street, the Simonds Family Office is understood to have bought Paul Franze and Sampieri Group’s development site — the old beach-hut market.

The 817-square metre site at 438 Chapel Street was originally offered as a fund-through development deal by Gross Waddell ICR agents Danny Clark, Michael Gross and Alex Ham.

But Mr Clark said he was inundated by investors and developers.

“We got a lot of strong enquiry to buy it outright, but we probably got more interest than if we had sold it as a straight development site,” Mr Clark said.

It fetched around $14.2 million or a record $17,500 land price per square metre.

Emmetts’ Charles Emmett, Geoff Emmett and Andrew Milligan are understood to have introduced the buyer who plans to occupy part of the building when it is completed.

Meanwhile, the Emmetts team also sold three shops at 576-584 Chapel Street for $15.9 million in an off-market deal brokered over the summer.

The sale of the shops, leased by Saba, Gorman and Marimekko, reflected a yield of 3.5 per cent.

Also on Chapel Street, but over the river in Cremorne, Teska Carson agents Stephen Speck and Adrian Boutsakis are selling a low-rise office-warehouse on 513 square metres of land on the corner of Walnut Street.

The two-storey office warehouse at 2-6 Chapel Street is behind the newly completed 510 Church Street and is expected to sell in the mid-to-high $5 million range.

Long service

CoINVEST, the organisation that manages the construction industry’s portable long-service leave programme, is off-loading a Camberwell office.

The two-level building at 1183 Toorak Road is expected to fetch in the low $20 million range. Built in 1989, the 2645-square metre office also has two levels of parking for 98 cars.

It’s on a 1807-square metre site halfway between Hartwell and Burwood railway stations and is fully leased to Lion Beer and several other tenants. It returns more than $1.22 million a year.

Colliers agents Peter Bremner, Rachael Clohesy and Alex Browne are running expressions of interest which close on March 17.

CoINVEST bought the property from Trinity Funds Management back in 2007 for $11 million. It was advised by Charter Keck Cramer.

Slade family

The Slade family, a once-famous knitwear manufacturer, is offloading its Queens Road investment opposite Albert Park.

Cleared in 2010, the 2323-square metre site at No.31 is one of the last development sites left on the leafy boulevard and comes with a permit for a 15-storey, 142-apartment tower.

While towers now dominate the Albert Park dress circle, the immediate neighbours are classic Art Deco apartments — Newburn Flats to the north, Brookwood Flats to the south.

Vinci Carbone agents Joseph Carbone and Frank Vinci are selling the site with Gross Waddell ICR’s Michael Gross and Danny Clark. Expressions of interest close on March 3.

It’s expected to fetch in the mid-to-high $20 million range.

The last deal on Queens Road was No.50-52 which sold for $70 million a year ago with no planning permit. Around the corner, 8 Louise Street fetched $21 million in June 2021 with Samuel Property buying a three-storey block of 1950s era flats.

Pub test

Even when we couldn’t get a drink at the bar in the past two years, the pub deals were pumping.

The latest offerings to be served up include the Apollo Bay Hotel, held for 30 years, and West Melbourne’s Royal Mail Hotel, fresh to the market for the first time in 20 years.

The Apollo Bay pub comes to the market after a slew of strong results for coastal hotels.

Justin Hemmes’ Merivale Group paid $38 million for the Lorne Hotel last August. In New South Wales, Byron Bay’s Great Northern fetched $75 million, the Woy Woy Hotel sold for $32 million and Shaws Bay Hotel in Ballina changed hands for $30.5 million.

JLL’s hotels agents Will Connolly said the Apollo Bay Hotel, which won the best regional pub bar award in 2021, is expected to sell for north of $10 million.

One of the long-time owners, Stephen McMahon, said it would be an emotional exit for the partners who had held the property for a generation.

It’s on a 2368-square metre corner site on the Great Ocean Road with views out to the foreshore and bay.

There’s probably a different future in sight for the Royal Mail, on the corner of Spencer and Stanley streets, which is being sold with vacant possession.

It’s likely to sell as a development site when it goes to auction on March 18 through Colliers agents Oliver Hay, Tom Isaksson, Alexander Leggo and Leon Ma.

Meanwhile, a long-closed pub, the Australia Hotel on the corner of Bridge Road and Waltham Street, has sold off-market for $3.85 million.

The deal was done by Gross Waddell ICR’s Danny Clark and Julian Materia at a land rate of $11,527 a square metre.

The old pub was converted into a shop and offices back in the 1990s when Bridge Road was at the beginning of its long, golden retail cycle.

Records show the vendor was City of Yarra councillor Herschel Landes who bought the old pub in 2001.