Counting votes cuts the cost of suburban office

The triangle-shaped property was used by Flinkier Motors as a car yard until 2007 but was an Ampol petrol station in an earlier life. The Flinkier family bought it in 1996 for $655,000.

Down the road at 332 Kings Way, DSA Lawyers have paid $1.55 million for a 330 square metre strata office at an auction held by Stonebridge Property Group’s Dylan Kilner, Max Warren and Shawn Luo.

The CBD-based legal firm is understood to be planning to move in when the current lease expires.

They’re not the only owner-occupier snapping up their own digs in South Melbourne’s fringe office market. Securiton, a cybersecurity outfit, has paid $1.32 million for an office at 117 Ferrars Street.

Kilner said the office sold at a 21 percent premium to the last sale in the building.

Spring Street dining

Developer Ross Pelligra is taking advantage of the fresh enthusiasm for fine dining, setting aside 1500 square metres of space at 85 Spring Street for a new restaurant.

The three-level section of the building faces Little Collins Street and the Windsor Hotel and comes with a rooftop garden.

Colliers’ Adam Lester and Tom Larwill are handling expressions of interest in the space.

Pelligra is refurbishing the 16-storey office building it bought last year for $130 million. Once occupied by ANZ’s finance arm Esanda, it has been empty for years.

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Grocon paid $45 million in 2013 and fought hard to win approval for a 39-storey apartment tower. In 2017, Golden Age spent $75 million before flipping it to Anton Real Estate Partners in 2019 for $112 million.

The 10,700 square metre office tower is in a premium location above Parliament railway station with the historic Treasury Building and Gardens to the south and State Parliament to the north. The long-awaited refurbishment is due for completion at the end of the year.

Down the street is Cbus Property’s new $300 million apartment tower at 17 Spring Street, which has reached practical completion, and around the corner on Exhibition Street is SP Setia’s recently completed twin towers, Sapphire by the Gardens, where Colliers have a $39 million penthouse under offer.

So, there’s no shortage of potential cashed-up diners nearby. Colliers research shows nine new premium restaurants have opened in the city and metro area in 2023 with a further four expected in the coming months.

Laneway hardware

Last week we were lamenting the lack of recent laneway deals and lo, a four-storey warehouse at 55-57 Hardware Lane is on the market.

The 137-year-old warehouse has special significance under the City of Melbourne’s planning scheme. It’s one of five warehouses built on Hardware Lane and Goldie Place for furniture maker Penman & Dalziel, who were one of the city’s leading craftsmen and manufacturers.

The 310 square metre building is on a 98 square metre plot and is expected to sell for more than $4 million. It last changed hands in 1991, in the depths of the last major recession, for $767,500.

JLL agent Tim Carr, who is marketing the building with Nick Peden, Josh Rutman and MingXuan Li, said just four buildings have sold on Hardware Lane in the four years.

At the start of last year, No. 27-31 fetched a bullish $7.42 million with a yield of 3.46 per cent. And a couple of years earlier, No. 60 sold for $4.8 million – a building rate of $23,905 a square metre and a spiky yield of 2.91 per cent.

Down Little Bourke Street, the JLL team also sold 21-27 Somerset Lane early last year for $7 million on behalf of not-for-profit group The Foundation For Young Australians.

Land farewell

Say goodbye to another chunk of farmland on the south-east metropolitan fringe. An 83.3 hectare farm in Officer South is earmarked for industrial development and expected to sell for as much as $100 million.

LAWD’s Peter Sagar, Paul Callanan and Darcy Tobin are selling 90 Handford Lane on behalf of a family which has held the property for 40 years.

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The land, inside the Officer South Employment Precinct Structure Plan, is one of the biggest to hit the market so far this year. It’s expected to be rezoned for industrial purposes after structure plan approvals go through.

Demand for big industrial development sites close to transport links has surged in the past few years, triggered by pandemic-related shortages.

Late last year, fund manager Neil Werrett paid $130 million for a 53.6 ha site at 585 Berwick-Cranbourne Road, Clyde; MAB bought 1580 Thompsons Road for more than $60 million; and ISPT spent $100 million on 78.8ha at 425 Officer South Road.

The area is also teeming with new housing developments by Stockland, Parklea, Brown Property Group, Mirvac, YourLand, Satterley and Frasers Property.

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