Weekly Wrap

Fitzroys Weekly Wrap - 3rd June 2022

Posted on 03rd June 2022

62 Little La Trobe Street, Melbourne
The 3-storey, 369sqm building on a 123sqm site sold to a private investor for $6.55 million. It has a new hospitality fit-out and commercial kitchen on level 1 and is leased to café Nox on a new 5+5-year lease returning $275,666pa net. The vendors, the principals behind developers Mercator Holdings and Kaleida, bought the property in April 2021 for $4.378 million.

228-238 Numurkah Road, Shepparton

The 3,000sqm 7-Eleven petrol station corner site sold for $5.77 million on a 5.25% yield. It has a brand-new 14+7+7-year lease returning $303,000pa plus GST.

265 Lygon Street, Carlton

A local investor bought the 2-storey shop sold for $2.34 million on a 3.3% yield.

749 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn

An owner-occupier paid $2.305 million for the vacant 139sqm shop and dwelling on a 183sqm Commercial 1-zoned site that was built and owned by architect Frank B. Tompkins.

4/183 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda

The 140sqm space leased to a café sold for more than $1.4 million, on a 4.2% yield. It has a 4+4+4-year lease returning $60,000pa.

150 Stephen Street, Yarraville

The 240sqm shop and dwelling on a 167sqm site sold for $1.302 million. It is occupied by Madison Coffee & Corner Store on a 10-year lease with options to 2051 returning $70,000pa.

22 Hamilton Street, Mont Albert

The 130sqm shop, tenanted by Bread Street Bakery for the past 20 years, sold for $1.17 million. It has a 5+5+5-year lease from April 2017 returning $43,950pa.

183 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne

Kim Bao Beauty leased the ground floor shop on a 3+3-year term at $148,500pa for their first site in Melbourne.

25 & 26/797 Plenty Road, South Morang
The 263sqm 1st floor office within the Axis Homemaker Centre was leased on a 3+3-year term at $365,000pa.

563 Keilor Road, Niddrie
An owner-occupier in the automotive industry paid $2.405 million for the vacant 440sqm warehouse on a 668sqm site.

1-7/16 Rosemary Court, Mulgrave

A local investor bought the industrial complex for $4.95 million. The property comprises 7 units totalling 1,661sqm on a 4,043sqm site.

1/9 Transit Drive, Campbellfield

Impact Designer Homes divested the 790sqm office and warehouse for $1.725 million to expanding owner-occupier Aaditya Transport, which is doubling its real estate footprint.

45 Trawalla Avenue, Thomastown

A national manufacturer leased the 5,059sqm building on a 3+3-year term at $365,000pa.

30-44 Sackville Street, Collingwood
A local developer/landbanker paid $17 million for a 1,556sqm Commercial 2-zoned site, currently improved by warehouses home to a brewhouse, and guitar and bike retailers.

125 Greythorn Road, Balwyn North

The 2,650sqm site 2 street frontages and 2 individual homes sold for $5.4 million. There is an existing permit for a childcare centre with 154 places.

470-476 Springvale Road, Springvale South
Mercy Health has sold one of its former aged care homes for $5.5 million. The 1,551sqm facility is on a 3,929sqm site and operated as an aged care home with 42 rooms until last year.

Bay Street, Brighton Portfolio Sells for $6.83m
A portfolio of Bay Street retail properties in Melbourne’s blue-chip suburb of Brighton has sold for $6.83 million.

Fitzroys’ Mark Talbot and Chris James sold 311 Bay Street, while Talbot and Fitzroys’ Tom Fisher sold 407 Bay Street and 409 Bay Street.

All 3 properties were owned by an Estate associated with the late Tom Chapman, a prominent real estate agent who previously owned Hodges Real Estate for 3 decades from the time he bought the business in 1956.

Chapman was a highly successful auctioneer, as well as an innovator; he installed 2-way radios in his agent’s cars and was among the first to introduce display advertising in the industry to better promote sales.

More than 200 local and national buyers made enquiries across the three campaigns.

“Brighton real estate is amongst the most tightly-held and prestigious in Melbourne. The huge market response and strong results clearly reflected the perennial demand for opportunities in the suburb,” Talbot said.

311 Bay Street – previously occupied by Hodges, and now the long-term home of Brighton Carpets Carpet Court – was purchased by an investor on an ultra-sharp 1.9% yield. Six bidders competed for the 408sqm corner site and pushed the price $460,000 beyond the reserve, to $3.81 million.

“Corner sites in the heart of Brighton retail strips are ultra-rare. Investors also recognised the property’s excellent rental growth prospects, while land bankers and value-add players were attracted to the highly flexible Commercial 1 zoning and Design and Development Overlay, which promoted a three-level building height at a time in which the suburb is seeing a plethora of medium-density residential developments.

“The buyer now has a substantial prime corner site in a blue-chip Melbourne suburb to call their own.”

Two strong bidders competed for 407 Bay Street, which took the price $300,000 over the reserve to $1.84 million, and resulted in another sharp yield of 2.9%. The 2-level property has a secure 5+5-year lease from February 2020 and offered investors and landbankers the chance to secure a 247sqm site directly opposite the Coles supermarket-anchored mixed-use development.

“The market has continually shown faith in Melbourne’s shopping strips over the past 2 years, with investors opting for income-producing, well-located bricks and mortar assets with long-term leases,” Talbot said.

Next door, the versatile 409 Bay Street property sold with vacant possession for $1.18 million. Talbot said the buyer is an owner-occupier who outbid several investors to purchase the property. The high-exposure location of the property and its value-add potential were major drawcards for the purchaser.

“Bay Street, Brighton serves one of Melbourne’s most prized catchments, which has maintained a strong demographic with high disposable income and a consistently high median house price, supporting strong retail trade.”

Reflecting its even tenancy mix and affluent catchment, Bay Street, Brighton recorded among the most stable performances of any of Melbourne’s shopping strips throughout the COVID period, according to Fitzroys’ Walk the Strip report.

Fitzroys has now sold over $30 million worth of commercial property in the blue-chip suburb over the past 12 months, at an average yield of just 2.77%. Most recently, Fitzroys sold the heritage-style 990sqm dominant corner building at 71-73 Church Street & 36 Carpenter Street, home to Nike, Ecco and Laurent, for $16.2 million at a 3.8% yield. The agency also sold the Church Street home of international retailer Oroton Group for $6.07 million at an incredibly tight 2.5% yield.

Campbellfield Industrial Sells For $41m
Nick Andrianakos, founder of the Milemaker Petroleum service station chain and Nikos Property Group, has sold a 9.3ha Campbellfield industrial site for $41 million to US private equity firm Cabot Properties.

The Boston-based logistics developer create a logistics estate on the site with an on-completion value of $130 million. It will comprise 55,000sqm of lettable area across 3 buildings, with tenancies ranging from 4,000sqm to 45,000sqm.

This will be its 5th project in Melbourne, following 2 in Truganina and 2 in the south-east.

Another Industrial Property Value Surge
Also in the northern suburbs, a Mill Park industrial property has sold for $20 million to a Melbourne-based investor, after selling for $12.75 million 3 years ago.

Sydney-based investors Amal and Karim Obiadi bought the 2.4ha property at 20-30 Heaths Court in 2019 on a 6.2% yield, after the previous vendor, Cadence Property Group, secured a long-term leased with ASX-listed fruit juice maker The Food Revolution Group.

It has now sold on a 4.2% yield, with 10 years remaining on the lease. The Food Revolution Group, whose brands include Original Juice Company and The Juice Lab, uses the property for logistics, manufacturing and as a head office.

Cadence’s sale of the property in 2019 reflected a 54% capital gain on the property during just 1 year of ownership, having bought it for $7.14 million and spending $1.75 million on improvements.

Grollos Sell Dandenong Office Building for $165m
An 8-level office building in Dandenong has been sold by the Grollo family to ASX-listed Growthpoint Properties Australia for $165 million.

Constructed in 2011 and known as the Government Service Office, the Thomas Street building is almost fully leased to the Victorian Government and sold on a 5.3% initial yield.

Last year, the Grollos also sold another a suburban office building mostly occupied by the Victorian Government – the fully-leased 14-level 1 McNab Avenue building in Footscray – to another ASX-listed company, Centuria Capital Group, for $224 million. That building has an 11.8-year WALE and traded on a market capitalisation rate of 4.7%.

Mercedes-Benz Toorak Site Set for Redevelopment
Developer Orchard Piper has bought the Mercedes-Benz dealership site in Toorak for $67 million, with plans to deliver a $400 million precinct with high-end residential, retail space and commercial suites.

The 3,600sqm site at 17-19 Carters Avenue, just off Toorak Village, was bought from the Hagen family and the late John Worrell, whose father Ted established a car dealership on the site in the early 1930s. John Worrell joined in 1943 and Karl Hagen became a business partner 20 years later, and the dealership was run as the Worrells Mercedes-Benz dealership until 2004.

Orchard Piper last year acquired the 1,000sqm Toorak Village corner site at 424-426 Toorak Road and 109 Mathoura Road for $20 million for another mixed-use project, and has since expanded the site to 1,400sqm by acquiring 2 adjoining blocks.

Also in Toorak Village, Bill McNee’s Vicland is developing a $600 million office and retail development at 489-505 Toorak Road.

Disclosure: The weekly Fitzroys Property Wrap is for information only on transactions in the Melbourne property market. Fitzroys provides this information as a public service. We are not purporting that all sales and leases within this report were transacted by Fitzroys. Terms/Privacy © Copyright 2021 Fitzroys.