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September 2010
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Melbourne Fire Brigade Pays $6.45 Million For Melbourne Suburban Office

THE State government has outbid a brigade of owner occupiers to snap up a hot office building in the heart of Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs, which will eventually become home to the Melbourne Fire Brigade. The MFB has paid $6.45 million for a double-storey standalone office at 1721 Malvern Road in Glen Iris, near the train station and High Street intersection. On a block measuring 1603 square metres, the 1893 square metre building was last renovated in 2006. It includes 57 basement car parks, and currently returns a yearly rent of $523,450, mostly from tenant Preston Aviation Solutions. [...]

Private Sector to Develop Melbourne’s Next Hospital

MELBOURNE’s next hospital and major medical clinic will be developed by the private sector in Hawthorn. The City of Boroondara council has issued a permit allowing for the former VECCHI building at 50 Burwood Road to be converted from offices into a 40-bed hospital, and associated medical centre allowing up to 15 practitioners. Sydney-based Healthbridge, a health based fund of manager Ironbridge, outmuscled several residential property developers to buy the prominent Hawthorn site for $17.1 million in April. It struck a deal to relocate the office tenants that were still based at the office, while pushing its conversion plans with council. [...]

Ashburton Post Office Set to be Redeveloped Into Apartments

ANOTHER suburban post office is being redeveloped into flats. This time, in Melbourne’s east, the former Ashburton Post Office at 218 High Street will be replaced with a four-level apartment building. One bedroom units start at $349,950 – or about the same price as a house on land in the suburb in the late 1990s. Castran Gilbert selling agents Michael Lang and David Howard say the apartments include reverse cycle heating and cooling, and full security basement car accommodation with direct lift access. [...]

Upmarket Furniture Retailer Quits Collins Street’s Georges Building

Upmarket furniture and homeware retailer Radstock + Kendall will vacate its prominent retail space at the Georges building at 162 Collins Street, and lease about 250 square metres at the ground floor of Valad’s 575 Bourke Street office tower. Knight Frank retail leasing director Gary Loo said the retailer is following office workers and city shoppers which are increasingly commuting around the western edge of the CBD. He said interstate travelers accessing the CBD from Southern Cross station was another factor driving tenant interest in the area. [...]

Office of Housing Buys Former Box Hill Aged Care Facility

THE Office of Housing has paid close to $4 million for a disused aged care facility in Box Hill. Dwellings on the 2480 square metre site, opposite the Box Hill Tennis Club and near the Surrey Hills and Burwood suburb borders, are expected to be refurbished before being made available to public housing tenants. The purchase continues a trend of the Federal Government, and associated public housing service providers snapping up prevalent development sites all around Melbourne and Victoria. Some of the biggest public housing projects are currently under construction in Abbotsford, Ashwood, Carlton, Ringwood and Wonthaggi. [...]

Becton to Sell 422 Little Collins Street

DEVELOPER and fund manager Becton is still in a selling mood. This time, the East Melbourne-based group is offloading a Little Collins Street office building it bought from Vicland for $22.2 million in September 2006. The 422 Little Collins Street office is expected to fetch about $17.5 million this time around, reflecting a yield of about 10 per cent based on the assets approximate annual income of $1.75 million. [...]

Becton to Sell 422 Little Collins Street

DEVELOPER and fund manager Becton is still in a selling mood. This time, the East Melbourne-based group is offloading a Little Collins Street office building it bought from Vicland for $22.2 million in September 2006. The 422 Little Collins Street office is expected to fetch about $17.5 million this time around, reflecting a yield of about 10 per cent based on the assets approximate annual income of $1.75 million. [...]

RAIA to Start Construction of Melbourne CBD’s Next Office Building

CONSTRUCTION of the city’s next major office tower will start in February, after seven, strata titled levels of a proposed buidling sold “off-the-plan” to owner occupiers, in a pre-marketing campaign. The Royal Australian Institute of Architects will build an uber-luxurious, $40 million, 21-level tower at the north-west corner of Exhibition Street and Flinders Lane. Measuring approximately 7000 square metres, the RAIA will occupy levels 1 to 4 of the new building, which will sit between much larger skyscrapers including the Ernst & Young building at 8 Exhibition Street, the Collins Place towers and the recently refurbished Grand Hyatt Hotel. [...]

Apartments at Naval and Military Club Redevelopment Hit the Market

THE Paris end of the Melbourne CBD is set to see the construction of a new apartment skyscraper. The former Naval & Military Club at 27 Little Collins Street will be demolished and replaced with a 32-level tower, targeting two types of high-end buyers. Levels 15 to 25 of the new building will include 142 apartments priced from $385,000 for a one-bedroom, and $580,000 for two-bedroom apartments. Larger, luxury apartments will be developed between levels 26 and 30, where one bedroom flats start at $590,000 and two-bedroom apartments, from $1.087 million. A penthouse occupies the highest floors, while the lowest 14-levels will trade as a hotel, flanked by ground floor shops. [...]

Mirvac Starts Marketing Next Docklands Skyscraper

SYDNEY-based developer Mirvac will launch its sixth Docklands skyscraper, Yarra Point, in October. Mirvac will adopt a design strategy used at its Tower 5 complex nearby, and the Melburnian, in St Kilda Road, by targeting top-end buyers with a high quality product. This is reflected in the sale price, where one-bedroom flats are expected to be priced from $500,000. The distinctive $200 million tower, 31-level tower will include 201 apartments in one, two and three bedroom configurations. Yarra Point will include a rooftop garden, communal barbecue facilities and a gym atop a fifth level podium. At its entrance, Mirvac’s new tower will include a double-storey lobby with mature trees, a garden of succulent plantings and bluestone pavings that extends into the building from the adjacent, one-hectare Point Park. [...]