Phillpot settles in on Little Collins Street next to Melbourne Club
Two neighbouring buildings in Little Collins Street, at the back of the Melbourne Club, have been sold at auction for a combined $22.35 million to businessman Rob Phillpot, the co-founder of Aconex.
The construction software business was taken over by tech giant Oracle last year for $1.6 billion, giving Mr Phillpot the firepower needed to outbid top names at the Little Collins Street boardroom-style auction.
Among the bidders for the adjoining buildings at 37 and 39-41 Little Collins Street were understood to be the Melbourne Club itself along with other movers and shakers, such as Australia’s honorary consul to Monaco, Andrew Cannon.
The combined price dramatically exceeded initial expectations of $10 million or more.
In the final block before Spring Street, the two properties have been held in the same family for almost 50 years and stand across a lane from the Melbourne Club’s rear garden. Colliers International’s Oliver Hay, Daniel Wolman, David Sia and Chris Ling brokered the properties.
Home to Lupino, an Italian restaurant, the three-level building at 39-41 Little Collins Street has three street frontages, including Ridgway Place.
Next door is 37 Little Collins Street, a classically designed, two-storey brick building with an arched window characteristic of the 1910s era. It is home to tapas venue Bar Lourinha and is next door to the recently developed Sheraton hotel.
The property at 39-41 Little Collins Street was sold for $16.5 million, more than doubling its reserve of $7 million. That price represents a yield of 1.1 per cent.
Next door, the building at 37 Collins Street, sold for $5.85 million, well ahead of its reserve at $3.5 million on a 2.2 per cent yield.
It is a busy investment period in the precinct. A half-block away, luxury Swiss watchmaker Rolex recently bought Victorian Liberal Party’s long-held Melbourne headquarters at 104 Exhibition Street, on the corner of Little Collins Street, for $37.1 million.
Nearby, the country’s largest landlord, Dexus, recently bought two neighbouring properties in the last block of Collins Street including one held by the Reserve Bank of Australia, for about $230 million in total. Last month Dexus doubled down in the neighbourhood, taking over the 80 Collins Street mixed-use precinct in a $1.5 billion deal.
