Shop occupied by Shane Delia's newest Maha venue hits the market

Delia first opened a kebab shop – Biggie Smalls – at the 86 Smith Street building in 2015. It is a 275 square metre, three-storey building on a 168 sq m site, returning $124,000 a year in rent.

Savills agents James Latos, Julian Heatherich, Tim Grant and Benson Zhou are handling the campaign and expect it to sell for about $3 million.

Records show the property last changed hands at the top of the market, in 2018, when Sydney investors paid $3.58 million.

At the other end of Smith Street, a 688 sq m building, on Sackville Street, is on the market for the first time in almost 30 years. The late 20th-century office-warehouse at number 45-49 is on 511 sq m of land and is leased to Beyond Best gym.

Stonebridge agents Max Warren, Dylan Kilner and Shawn Luo are marketing the property and are expecting it to sell for more than $4 million.

Forza flips car park

Investment fund Forza Capital is offloading the riverside car park it bought from Carlton & United Breweries in 2019.

Forza paid $12 million for the 478 bay car park at 38 Grosvenor Street, Abbotsford. The property, located at the end of the street, is on 3880 sq m and is fully leased to CUB and other local businesses. It returns $964,352 a year in rent.

JLL agents Tim Carr, Josh Rutman and MingXuan Li are handling expressions of interest in the site, which is expected to sell for more than $15 million.

The property is a shorter hold than usual for Forza, but the value-add it hoped to derive from the investment did not come off.

A year after Forza bought the car park it applied to build an 11-storey office tower on top of the existing building, to make 15 levels.

After the City of Yarra failed to decide on the matter, it went to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Forza duly reduced the size of the proposed building toeight storeys.

However, VCAT still rejected the development because of its “undue prominence,” plus its height so close to the river.

CBD action

An owner-occupier has snapped up level 18, 41 Exhibition Street for $4.15 million.

The deal represents a healthy $15,000 a sq m for the 280 sq m floor, which is half leased for another two years. Private investors had bought the office off-the plan for $2.21 million in 2013.

The last office in the tower to trade was level 10, which fetched $4.8 million – about $17,000 a sq m. Rising interest rates were expected to dampen the sale price of level 18, despite its higher level and views.

Known as 41X, the 22-level five-star Green Star project on the corner of Exhibition Street and Flinders Lane was developed by the Australian Institute of Architects in 2014.

CBRE agents Alex Brierley, Nathan Mufale, JJ Heng and Sam O’Connell handled the deal.

On the other side of the eastern precinct, the team, with David Minty, sold a development site at 22-24 Bennetts Lane that was once across the road from the internationally famous Bennetts Lane jazz club.

The 140 sq m site, which includes an old warehouse, fetched $3 million in a mortgagee sale. It came with a permit for a 13-level apartment building and was bought by a private developer.

Records show Lionel Lin Shi’s Mequity paid $2.53 million for the site in 2017, two years after the club shut down and was redeveloped into an apartment tower.

Suburban deals

The Balwyn office of real estate agency Noel Jones has been sold after an auction to a local investor for more than $3.5 million.

The prominent, three-level office at 289-291 Whitehorse Road was passed in after bidding from three parties, but was sold soon after on a yield believed to be about 3.8 per cent.

The 671 sq m building is on a 490 sq m parcel of Commercial 1 zoned land opposite Balwyn Park. It has three tenants on short-term leases expiring in April 2024. It returns $141,873 a year in rent.

The auction was managed by Gorman Allard Shelton’s Dean Alexander and Tom Maule.

Records show the Voyage family – noted for their early trading links in China – had owned the office for more than 60 years.

It was designed by influential mid-century architect Ernest Fooks (born Fuchs), who emigrated to Australia just before the Second World War. He played an important role in bringing the international modern style to Melbourne.

In nearby Camberwell Junction, an owner-occupier paid $2.65 million for a two-storey strata office at 401 Riversdale Road, with plans to turn it into a new medical clinic.

The 387 sq m space, on the corner of Redfern Road, is in a building that was strata titled in 2000. CBRE’s Hawthorne, Mufale, Pignata and Heng brokered the deal.

In other suburban offerings, an office building in Heidelberg with a ground-floor shop leased to the Commonwealth Bank is expected to fetch about $9 million.

The four-level building was constructed in 2008. Its three lower levels, covering 1313 sq m, are for sale and include 22 undercover car parks.

Gray Johnson agents Matt Hoath and Rory White are handling the expressions of interest campaign.

Down south in Frankston, an office building at 49-51 Beach Street, which is leased to the Victorian Department of Education and local MP Paul Edbrooke, is expected to fetch up to $10 million. JLL’s Carr, Rutman, Li and Mark Stafford are handling that campaign.

Aged care boom

Another former aged care centre is poised for renewal after Trinity Care’s vacant Burwood site sold for $12.58 million. It was purchased by an international investor with plans to run it as a new supported residential care unit for NDIS participants.

The rising cost of building new facilities is driving up the prices of vacant aged-care centres.

The 45-bed Burwood home – at 8-18 Edwards Street – is on a large 5614 sq m site and came with development approval to build a new 110-bed home.

CBRE’s Sandro Peluso, Marcello Caspani-Muto and Jimmy Tat handled the campaign. Caspani-Muto said the price set a new benchmark for the asset class.

The team also recently sold the 79-bed Warrina Aged Care centre, in the Macedon Ranges, for $24 million.

Also on the market is the Green Gables home at 15 Coulstock Street, Epping, which is being marketed by Melbourne Acquisitions and Amicum for Homestyle Aged Care.