Bust developer’s lakeside office to sell at firesale price
Taiwanese-backed development company Everland Global has gone bust, and receivers have been appointed to several of its related companies, including the owner of 10 Queens Road, an office now for sale at a bargain-basement price “in the early $30 millions.”
The 19-level Queens Road office, which overlooks Albert Park Lake, was purchased from Larry Kestelman for $59 million in 2019. By February 2024, expectations had come down to $50 million. That price floor is falling again.
Reports filed with the corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, show Everland owes money to several entities, including a host of related companies.
The price for 10 Queens Road is falling fast.
The Queens Road tower is on a large 2300 square metre site. Agents are pitching it as a target for conversion to residential use. The near 50 per cent price discount means that equation might actually stack up.
Cushman & Wakefield agents Oliver Hay, Daniel Wolman and Leon Ma are running the campaign with Colliers Jozef Dickinson, Aaron Choong and Alex Browne.
Moving house
Furniture retailer MCM House is moving into the 730 sq m space at 1068-1076 High Street Armadale. Woolworths and its shuttered subsidiaries, Macro Wholefoods and Thomas Dux, had occupied the former hotel since 2008.
Barry Marshall, who negotiated the deal at a bumper $740,000 a year, said the lease set a new rental benchmark for the highly sought-after strip.
“However, due to the unique nature and size of the property, it should not be referenced as a standard transaction. Nevertheless, it is reflective of the strength of the local market.”
The property on the corner of William Street was a hotel since the 1860s and hosted live bands such as The Cure, INXS and the Divinyls in the 1980s – back when the bands were small and High Street was not the hot, high-fashion and wedding boutique strip it is today.
Junction office
The suburban office market is facing its next test with the listing of 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, in the Junction precinct.
Multiple deals are underway in upmarket Camberwell Junction.Credit: Paul Jeffers
Syndicator Peak Equities bought the office in 2017 for $27.5 million. It was leased by Priceline at the time, which has since moved to Botanicca in Richmond.
The 5022 sq m building has had nearly $4 million spent on a revamp. It is 55 per cent leased, but some of the excess is expected to be leased out soon.
JLL’s Josh Rutman, Tim Carr and MingXuan Li, with Lemon Baxter’s Paul O’Sullivan and Hans Fan, are running the campaign.
Also in the Junction, the Meat & Wine Co restaurant at 482 Riversdale Road is going to auction on October 18.
The heritage-listed former English, Scottish and Australian Bank is expected to fetch more than $4.3 million. Tiga’s David Sia, Martin Leong and Griffin Barrett are handling enquiries.
A couple of doors up the hill, a five-storey office at 697-699 Burke Road, which is on a large 1950 sq m site, is for sale for between $40-50 million.
It’s a big range for a property being sold as a development site. Developer Above Zero recently scored a permit for a 12-storey office and apartment project designed by Cera Stribley Architects.
697 Burke Road, Camberwell.Credit: Simon Schluter
JLL’s Jesse Radisich, Maddie Pizzey, Rutman and Li have the listing.
Two car yards
It’s a tale of two car yards with the listings of the City Jeep site in Southbank and the Toyota showroom in Heidelberg – one as a development site and the other as an investment.
The lease on the 3030 sq m Southbank site at 228-232 and 234-238 Normanby Road expires in 2025. It’s expected to fetch more than $25 million.
Colliers agents Matt Stagg, Jozef Dickinson and Tim McIntosh, with Stonebridge’s Julian White, Chao Zhang, and Dylan Kilner, are handling the campaign.
In central Heidelberg, three properties on 7356 sq m at 473 and 474-482 Lower Heidelberg Road and 1-7 Villa Street are likely to fetch in the high $20 millions.
They are one year into a fresh five-year lease to Servco, the largest Toyota dealer in Australia which has four more five-year options on the site. Cushman & Wakefield’s Joe Kairouz, Daniel Wolman, Hamish Burgess and Leon Ma have the listing.
While many car yards that sprawl on huge parcels of land are heading towards redevelopment where pricing is now uncertain, properties with long leases are selling at healthy prices.
Rich lister Nick Politis paid just under $50 million last month for the Brighton and Doncaster Porsche centres, reflecting yields of about 5 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Courtney & Patterson car yard and service centre on the edge of Heidelberg at 10 and 11 Yarra Street have not sold, hampered by a flooding overlay related to the nearby Yarra River and the ongoing North-East Link construction works.
Industrial peacock
The growing Peacock Group, which supplies labelling and tracking equipment to the logistics industry, is offloading a seven-property industrial portfolio worth about $30 million.
Peacock, which started in 1888 as a printing business, is selling its headquarters in Oakleigh, three properties in Tullamarine and Mornington and another one in the tightly held Glendenning market in Sydney.
Peacock Group’s Ryan McGrath said the company has grown through a series of mergers and acquisitions.
“This sale is a core component of our broader strategy to unlock capital and leverage this period of growth.”
It’s selling 3529 sq m of office and warehouse space at 11 and 13 Stamford Road and 9 Kingstown Town Close on a 5100 sq m parcel of land.
Cushman & Wakefield agents Chris Jones and Charlie Holmes, who have the listing, have research showing occupier demand has shifted to smaller leases with 77 per cent of deals done in the sub-10,000 sq m size bracket.
Holmes said the infill properties are in high demand and provide handy access to distribution networks in medium- to high-density areas.
In Werribee, a local owner-occupier has paid $12 million for a 1.7-hectare lot at 86-100 Lock Avenue, which was most recently a depot for an earthworks business.
JLL’s Robert DiNatale, Ilia Karageorgiou and James Jorgensen handled the transaction.
“We’re seeing increasing demand for the precinct from owner occupiers due to increasing shortage of land supply in traditional industrial markets,” DiNatale said.
Down near the Mornington Peninsula, a portfolio of five properties of differing ages was sold by the owner of Rolls Printing, which has shut up shop.
An investor has bought the 5326 sq m parcel of land at 44-46 and 48 Bardia Avenue and 3 and 5 Govan Street and plans to renovate the older buildings and lease them.
They are understood to have fetched around $6 million.
Nichols Crowders agent Joshua Monks and Thomas Gordon handled the deal.
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