Diabetes charity’s city headquarters sells with short-term leaseback

Game on

Video game retailer EB Games has a new flagship store on Elizabeth Street.

EB Games has relocated from its four-level shop at 67 Swanston Street to 48 Elizabeth Street in the old My Chemist space.

It’s understood EB Games wanted to downsize. The smaller 192 sq m space has recently been used by The Book Grocer as a pop-up.

The shop is in the modern section of the 271 Collins Street complex, which includes a 10-storey heritage building and a 1980s-era seven-storey annex.

It was NAB’s head office from 1927 until the 1980s and was acquired by the Gabor and Kornhauser families in 2001 for $50 million.

Fitzroys agents Travis Keenan, Franklin Gikas and James Lockwood negotiated the lease.

In other moves, shoe retailer Sole Motive has just moved into 148 Little Collins Street from Queen Street on a three year lease; Sulwha Dessert Bar is also moving onto the strip; Union Kiosk has expanded to 10 Howey Place and Bent-Oh! is moving into Flinders Lane.

“Tenants are looking beyond the colds, flu and COVID of this winter and towards a big spring and summer,” Lockwood said.

“There is confidence that day-to-day trade will increase over the medium to long-term. We’ve already seen a bounce-back in nighttime activity and weekend visitation,” he said.

Country roads

Tenants are also moving or planning their moves in the suburbs. Retailer Country Road is moving out of the 500 Riversdale Road store in Camberwell Junction, where it has been housed for more than 35 years, up the road to 566 Burke Road.

Emmetts agents Charles Emmett and Xander Yeo negotiated the lease on the 558 sq m space. It comes just five months after the former NAB bank branch sold for $6.6 million.

Rents in the junction are ranging between $800 and $1000 a sq m.

Emmett said there had been a surge in leasing activity on the city’s premium suburban strips.

Other recent suburban deals include fashion retailer Gorman opening a new 220 sq m flagship store at 576-584 Chapel Street, Prahran; furniture retailer MCM House leasing a 290 sq m space nearby at 535-537 Chapel Street and Oroton Group leasing a new flagship shop at 1039 High Street, Armadale

Religious moves

The Salvation Army has listed its former Manningham Corps centre for sale and can expect a bumper $10 million for the landholding.

The 7241 sq m site at 35-41 Taunton Street, East Doncaster is opposite Zerbes Reserve and near Ruffey Lake Park.

Records show the Salvos have held the property since at least the mid-90s. It has General Residential zoning.

JLL agents Jesse Radisich, Mark Stafford and Mingxuan Li are handling expressions of interest.

The Salvos are frequent property traders. They sold 303-305 Royal Parade, Parkville to the University of Melbourne in 2014 for $25 million and ploughed the money into developing new facilities in Canterbury Road Ringwood.

And in other church-based moves, the arm of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria which did not become part of the Uniting Church in the 1970s, has made an acquisition.

The Uniting Church has sold its Rossmoyne Street holding in Thornbury to the Presbyterians for $3.6 million.

The church and buildings on the 1780 sq m site at 7-15 Rossmoyne Street were originally built by the Presbyterians about 100 years ago.

CVA agents David Napoleone and Daniel Philip received eight offers from a range of occupiers, developers and child care operators but the church’s original owner bought it back.

Aged care

Aged care developer the Knowles Group has snapped up a 5680 sq m site in Ringwood for $7.5 million.

The large cleared site at 313-317 Canterbury Road, near the Wantirna Road intersection, is opposite the golf course and down the road from the old Cadbury factory. It’s also a stone’s throw from the Salvo’s local operations.

The Knowles Group’s Arcare made the purchase at a $1320 a sq m land rate rate and will now develop a new aged care project for the site.

The deal was done by Colliers agents Leon Ma and Joe Kairouz.

Records show the property was bought in 2015 for $3.5 million by the Hong Zhou group. A two-storey naturopathy school and an abandoned house were cleared from the site in 2019 and townhouses were proposed.

“Competition was robust from an array of buyer types including traditional residential developers and social infrastructure developers such as childcare and retirement living,” Ma said.

Down the road in Vermont, a land-banking developer paid $5.5 million for an oddly elongated T-shaped block at 59-61 Betula Avenue in the area’s industrial precinct.

The 6767 sq m block attracted eight offers in a campaign run by CVA agents Ian Angelico, Stan Dawidowski and Jarrod Morgan with Stonebridge Property Group’s Julian White, Chao Zhang and Max Warren.

Potential buyers included occupiers, local and Asian industrial developers, as well as land bankers.