Capital Gain
The last of the Melbourne pubs embroiled in the spectacular collapse of Jon Adgemis’ Public Hospitality Group is up for grabs with expectations of around $4 million.
The Vine Hotel, on the corner of Derby Street, at 59 Wellington Street was reportedly earmarked for a George Calombaris restaurant before the Adgemis empire crumbled, owing $1.8 billion.
The sell-down of the 22-hotel portfolio has so far yielded about $80 million. While the Vine is currently vacant and covered in graffiti, the Art Nouveau-style pub is in the fast-gentrifying southern regions of Collingwood and ripe for revival.
The location is A1. It’s on 417-square-metres of land with three street frontages, next door to Gurner’s huge Victoria & Vine apartment project and across the road from The Commons office building.
Records show an Adgemis company, The Vine at Collingwood, paid $4.75 million in November in 2021 but plans for its glow-up never got off the ground.
Adgemis, also busy with the burgeoning Sydney stable, was lining up big name restaurateurs for the other two Melbourne venues. Guy Grossi’s Osteria went into The Clifton in Kew and Karen Martini took over the Saint Hotel on Fitzroy Street, St Kilda.
The south side pub sold last December to the Kokoda Group for $8.4 million and negotiations are well-advanced for the sale of the Clifton. HTL’s Scott Callow and George Iliopulos have the listing.
In other hotel news, the strata-titled Hotel Lincoln at 91 Cardigan Street, Carlton, sold for $2.5 million through CVA’s Jarrod Moran and Matt Knox.
CBD leasing
Not every renovation is a success story and the 2021 ‘de-furbishment’ at the Centreway Arcade left many people baffled, including potential tenants.
However, the arcade at 259 Collins Street is now fully leased with the opening of a luxury-focused Cash Converters in a 30 sqm space and Bami Station which also signed up for 30 sqm. An escape room, Escape This, has leased 750 sqm in the building’s upper floors.
The interior of the seven-level building, constructed in 1917, was remodelled in 1987 by architects Cocks Carmichael and Whitford and won several awards. Frankly, it was one of the city’s few successful post-modern architectural statements.
However, the building’s newish owner, sushi queen Anna Kasman, ripped out the fixtures in 2021 and had the whole arcade painted a stark white.
After the pandemic and the sterile renovation, tenants were slow to return to the building Kasman had bought for $40 million in 2014. In good news, however, Ainsworth Property’s Zelman Ainsworth has got the building leased up along with a string of other deals.
Down at the rebuilt Melbourne Walk arcade, Sydney Cigars has leased 50 sqm and Boston Clothing a further 117 sqm. Akubra Hats is also moving into the Walk.
Meanwhile, local accessories maker Bellroy is opening its first brick-and-mortar shop, leasing 118 sqm at 271 Little Collins Street. The local bag maker is also opening in Sydney, New York, London and Kuala Lumpur next year.
Retail leasing demand was consistent across the board, Ainsworth said. “We’re seeing retailers willing to commit to long-term leases at full market rents, provided landlords take a collaborative approach to structuring deals,” he said.
In other deals, former NSW credit union, IMB Bank, is opening a branch in a 200 sqm shop in the newly refurbished 114 William Street.
At the other end of town, Bupa Dental has taken out 357 sqm at Collins Place where Truefitt & Hill are also opening up in a 31 sqm shop.
CBD office
Hexa Group, a once active Chinese-capital backed property player, is selling a pair of CBD office buildings in the legal district. Hexa bought 369-375 Lonsdale Street in 2023, paying the auspicious price of $18.888 million – the number 8 is believed to bring luck in Chinese culture.
However, the current price quoted for the buildings is around $25 million. The 1002 sqm three-storey building at 369-371 Lonsdale was previously occupied by Dean’s Art at the street level and is on 580 sqm of land.
Its neighbour, a 600 sqm two-storey property rented to IDP Education, is on 337 sqm of land. Cushman & Wakefield’s Daniel Wolman, Oliver Hay and Leon Ma have the listing.
The building next door at 365 Lonsdale Street, which is on 417 sqm of land, last sold in 2023 to a Vietnamese investor for $10 million. Hexa Group has been relatively quiet since 2020 when it developed the 31-level Panorama tower in Box Hill.
Strata
Meanwhile, another floor of Golden Age’s 27-floor 130 Little Collins Street tower has sold and just two whole levels remain.
The tower, dominated by luxury watch sellers, restaurateur Chris Lucas and Golden Age’s corporate offices, replaced a modest brown brick building owned by the Uniting Church.
The 351 sqm level 21 sold last week and levels 20 and 17 remain, as well as a few smaller spaces on other floors. The tower’s upper levels have spectacular views of the CBD.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Jack Cooper and Angus Parnham are handling enquiries but declined to comment on the price. The building is now 80 per cent sold and has achieved rates of more than $20,000 per square metre which puts the likely price of the recently sold floor at around $7 million.
A couple of blocks away, not-for-profit health insurer Latrobe Health Services is selling its level 12 penthouse office at 343 Little Collins Street in Equitable House.
Records show the Gippsland-based insurer paid more than $1.43 million for the 340 square metre offices in 2006, shortly after the 11,910 sqm 12-storey building was strata-titled. CBRE’s Alex Brierly and Nathan Mufale are handling the campaign and quoting between $2-$2.2 million for the vacant property.
Industrial
A Derrimut industrial property, leased to blue-chip tenants SunRice and Asahi, is up for sale through its mortgagee with price expectations of around $40 million. The companies which own 10-16 Fulton Drive – Fulton Road Properties and Fulton Properties Over – are run by the Kutlesovski family.
Records show Stefce Kutlesovski, one of the developers who knocked down the Corkman Irish pub in Carlton, owned the companies until 2021, after which they were transferred to Lube Kutlesovski.
The corporate database also shows KordaMentha took control of the companies in late September and gained possession of the property on October 6.
Built in 2020, the two warehouses cover 20,031 sqm. They’re in the Gilbertson Industrial Estate on a large 37,940 sqm land holding. They have a relatively short lease average of just under eight months with Asahi set to move to a purpose-built facility in Ravenhall.
Current rent is approximately $2.5 million but the leasing rate of $125 per square metre is less than the market average of $150 in the area. Cushman & Wakefield’s Charlie Holmes and Chris Jones are running the campaign.
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