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 OPEN Universities Australia is selling its former head office, which was also the scene of the 1976 Great Bookie Robbery. The online tertiary education facility can expect to make about $4.4 million for its strata office, which includes levels one and two of the historic 131 Queen Street building. Connected by an internal staircase, and with a restored grand boardroom, each level measures 675 square metres. For years the building was owned and occupied by the Victoria Club. DTZ agent Craig Hembrow said the robbery was perpetrated in the former Club boardroom on the first level (pictured). [...]
 SUMMER 2012 may be the last time revelers can enjoy a drink and picnic outside a popular St Kilda Road hang-out. Developer Hudson Conway, headed by billionaire businessman Lloyd Williams has quietly relisted for sale a major development site at 557 St Kilda Road on the north-east corner of Moubray Street. In 2007, and during what were much more buoyant times in the residential development site sector, Stockland paid Vision Australia $28.3 million for the site, until recently one of the biggest land parcels in the tree-lined street. [...]
 MELBOURNE’s Southern Cross rail station (pictured) – formerly known as the Spencer Street Station – could get a $2 billion upgrade, as part of plans to build a high-speed rail link to Sydney. The rail tunnel, proposed within a federal government study last week, could cost between $61 billion and $108 billion. The trip between Australia’s two most populated cities could take three hours, with the train reaching speeds of 350 km/h (outside of the capitals, where they’ll travel about 200 km/h). This compares to about an hour, by plane, or about nine hours by road. [...]
 AN OPPORTUNITY has arisen for prime minister Julia Gillard to double the size of her humble Altona estate – or at least get an idea of how prices in the area are faring. A home in Delmont Avenue, and adjacent to Ms Gillard’s back fence, has been listed for sale asking between $550,000 and $600,000. The South Australia raised Gillard paid $140,000 for her Altona home (pictured, right) in 1998 – the year she was elected to represent residents in the safe ALP seat of Lalor where Altona sits. Ms Gillard’s property portfolio also includes a flat in the Canberra suburb of Kingston, which was her ACT base before moving to The Lodge last September. [...]
 AWARD winning Alpine chalet Under The Moonlight has been listed for private sale. The opulent Dinner Plain home, developed by R&R Van Heek Builders, won the 2009 Housing Industry Association’s Colorbond Most Innovative Use of Steel award. Judges said Under The Moonlight “commands attention and yet does not over-impose on the area’s natural landscape.” Under the Moonlight is part of the highest approved freehold land in Australia, and ten minutes from Mount Hotham. Dinner Plain is about a five hour drive, or almost 400 kilometres from Melbourne. [...]
 SUBURBS in Victoria accommodate Australia’s wealthiest and poorest average workers. According new Australian Taxation Office research, Portsea (pictured, right), about 90 minutes south of Melbourne, is home to the country’s highest earners in 2008-2009, up from third position a year earlier (those 2007-08 figures were released last year). The average income for Portsea residents was $198,987 per annum. [...]
LaSalle Investment has paid a speculated $200 million for the Novotel hotel on Collins Street, and neighbouring Australia on Collins Shopping Centre. Thakral Holdings offloaded the assets, after late last month withdrawing two other assets, in Queensland, from sale. Those assets were also expected to reap the company about $200 million. For LaSalle, the transaction follows it buying into a Sydney residential project, with Leighton Properties, last month. [...]
FIVE months after paying ING a speculated $22 million for the prominent Cheltenham office it was renting (pictured), the City of Kingston council has snared one of Australia’s biggest tour providers as a tenant. Australian Pacific Touring – more commonly known as APT – has quit its 36-year headquarters at Hampton Street, Hampton, and will move to the 1230 Nepean Highway office known for years as the Fujitsu building. APT, which established locally in 1920, will lease 3200 square metres of B-grade offices space, paying a speculated $200 per square metre, per annum in rent. [...]
LOCAL builder and fund manager Salta Properties is selling another asset, this time in Melbourne’s west. The 1.3 hectare industrial site with a 6800 square metre office in Westgate Drive, Altona North, is fully leased to Toyota Australia which uses the property to prepare motor cars for its national staff. Beller Commercial director Fred Nucara is expecting about $5 million for the asset. Based on the asset’s annual rental return of $510,000, that would equate to a yield of about 10 per cent. [...]
EIGHT months after the Frankston City Council deferred plans to build the multimillion dollar Frankston Safe Boat Harbour, city developer Asian Pacific Building Corporation has decided to offload the area’s most prominent property. In doing so, Frankston’s most ambitious privately proposed redevelopment – the $50 million-plus Peninsula Centre – may be no more. The distinguishing 12-level building at 435 Nepean Highway – once described by comedian Barry Humphries as “the worst building in Australia” is for sale with price expectations of between $13 and $16 million. [...]
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