Victoria Police pays $23m for South Melbourne supersite

With frontage to Eastern, Sturt and Tope streets, and a laneway, the 2714-square-metre site is set to make way from next year for a sophisticated police complex set to service the booming city fringe area.

This building will replace a police station fitted into an existing structure a few years ago in nearby Moray Street, South Melbourne.

Zoned Commercial 2, 142 Dorcas Street includes a nondescript red-brick warehouse built for L&H, with 2000 square metres of lettable area and 42 car park bays.

The sale campaign managed by Lemon Baxter directors Paul O’Sullivan and Chris Curtain was expected to attract interest from developers, with the potential for one or more multi-level structures.

The distinctive black and blue coloured Mercedes Benz Tower is in the immediate vicinity as is the ex-Biz Motel which in 2013 was the subject of television show The Block.

At the same time 142 Dorcas Street was listed for sale last month, a collection of neighbouring South Melbourne properties – 154 and 180 Bank Street and 217 Dorcas Street – hit the market with price hopes of about $45 million.

This 2580-square-metre site includes a historic ex-butter factory, later used as a music studio said to have been used by artists including John Farnham, The Easybeats, Russell Morris and Daddy Cool.

Agency Colliers International is also offering these three properties individually, too.

Last November, Little Lane Learning paid $60 million for a 9356-square-metre South Melbourne site which had a permit for four high rise towers containing more than 1000 flats. Instead this site at 68 Buckhurst Street is set to be replaced with an owner-occupied childcare centre.

Gurry lists Langley Hall

Langley Hall is back on the market. Photo: Supplied

Anthony Gurry – who for years ran South Yarra’s Quest Hotel and was once the development manager for Rupert Murdoch’s nephew Paddy Handbury, who is one of Victoria’s richest men – is selling a picture-perfect Bendigo asset.

Langley Hall, which was built in 1903 by the Anglican Church, is expected to sell for about $3 million with its future then, unknown.

Around established gardens and with several buildings including a house of worship and mansion, the property is used as a function centre and bed and breakfast.

However, there is scope for a commercial redevelopment or residential subdivision. To that end, 484-488 Napier Street, White Hills, it is being marketed to investors and builders, by Castran director John Castran.

Constructed for the first Anglican Bishop of Bendigo, Henry Langley, Langley Hall was later used as a recuperation centre for returned World War 1 soldiers.

Mr Gurry has during his ownership restored the imposing Edwardian home, penned by John Beebe and William Vahland, the latter, regarded by the selling agent as Bendigo’s “principal 19th century architect”.

Discount Seamart closes, lists

Another long-term retailer is quitting central Melbourne.

After 40 years marine supply business Discount Seamart has closed its doors for good at 678 Elizabeth Street, near the Haymarket roundabout, and is now offering the site for sale.

The 404-square-metre block is expected to arouse developer interest, particularly those seeking to build student accommodation. It is being marketed by CBRE Melbourne City Sales agents Alex Brierley, Max Ruttner, JJ Heng and Josh Rutman, with price hopes of more than $6 million.

Last year Bernard’s Magic Shop closed its bricks-and-mortar store after 80 years, the bulk of which was spent also in Elizabeth Street.

Braeside buy

An industrial site in Braeside, about 26 kilometres south-east of the CBD, is trading for more than $7 million.

The 1.56-hectare Industrial 1 zoned offering, four neighbouring properties, is understood to be selling to a developer following a campaign by John Nockles and Seamus Bolst of CVA Property Consultants and James Stott and Gordon Code of Colliers International.

The agents offered the sites as a whole or individually – two measure about 1000 square metres and the others, 6460 square metres and 7176 square metres.

Covering 5-15 Bate Drive, it was promoted to both investors, with a lease in place for five years, and developers – with the potential for the landlord to terminate that lease, rather be forced to renew an option.

Land backing onto this site is earmarked to make way for the Mordialloc Bypass – a nine-kilometre arterial. It is also next to a site being subdivided by Frasers Property Australia.

AVI buys back in Fitzroy

Another not-for-profit agency has purchased an office building, this time in Fitzroy.

The group known as Australian Volunteers International, but which nowadays goes by its acronym, is paying just over $5 million for a double-storey building at 160 Johnston Street, with the potential to undergo a straightforward extension into the airspace.

The deal leaves AVI in front from two property disposals in 2016 and April which banked a total of $15.1 million (these outgoing sites, former headquarters at 71-75 Argyle Street and 88 Kerr Street, are expected to be razed in coming years).

Australian Volunteers International will move into 160-166 Johnston Street in Fitzroy. Photo: Fitzroys

AVI’s new office at the corner of Hertford Street, next door to the Fitzroy Town Hall Hotel, includes 1100 square metres of area, configured as a showroom and offices and onsite car parking.

The site spreads 579 square metres with more than 20 metres of frontage to Johnston Street, a busy inner-north thoroughfare. Popular retail strip Brunswick Street is a block away. David Bourke and Terence Yeh, brokers with agency Fitzroys, along with Rodney Morley and Naomi Dorevitch, agents with Rodney Morley, sold 160 Johnston Street at auction, representing a local family which held the asset for nearly 50 years.

Mr Yeh said the property’s Commercial 1 zoning (which would allow for the construction of apartments), generated more than 120 enquiries.

“Investors were looking to take advantage of the inner-north’s future growth prospects, as residential demand in the area grows, while owner occupiers would be able to operate from the area’s growing dynamics. Developers were enticed by its zoning and position, making it suitable for mixed-use projects with any combination of residential, retail and office space.”