Property tycoon Stamoulis beats cryptocurrency billionaire Craven to $200m Melbourne block

Melbourne’s office market is springing back to life as cashed-up players battle for position ahead of a recovery.

Harry Stamoulis (left) is adding to his collection of Melbourne offices with the purchase of a Collins St tower.

Property tycoon Harry Stamoulis is again buying a major Melbourne office block, with his company going into due diligence on a Collins St block for around $200m.

Mr Stamoulis emerged as the winner in the contest to buy a city office block at 357 Collins Street from a Singapore-listed offshoot of Frasers, beating early interest from cryptocurrency billionaire Ed Craven.

Stamoulis Property Group is being represented by Paul Henley’s OneEast Capital, which provided advice on the tycoon’s earlier acquisitions and on other Melbourne office deals. The parties and adviser declined to comment.

Mr Stamoulis was drawn to the A-grade asset in the heart of Collins Street due to its high level of amenity and the fall off in values from their peak after interest rates were hiked.

The counter-cyclical purchase will add to his collection of buildings that have been picked up in the trough of the city’s office cycle, after last year buying a building from Charter Hall for about $155m.

But the battle for the Colin Street office block was most notable for Mr Craven’s interest, with The Australianable to reveal that he has been looking to invest in a commercial building to house his growing operations.

Mr Craven has transformed his Stake.com global gambling giant from a cryptocurrency-only online casino and betting empire, into an operator that accepts traditional currency. Stake, domiciled in the Caribbean tax haven of Curaçao, is also winning government-issued gambling licences around the world.

The 29-year-old billionaire Craven – who owns the majority of Stake with his American business partner Bijan Tehrani – has also set up the technology “unicorn” in streaming service Kick.

But he came up against Mr Stamoulis, who has emerged as one of the most savvy office buyers at this part of the cycle. Mr Craven is more likely to focus on smaller buildings that could house his interests, industry players said.

The office block was keenly contested, and also drew Growthpoint’s funds management operation, as well as the Lowy-family backed Assembly Funds operation, showing that private capital is still driving purchases in Melbourne.

Mr Stamoulis and his family have a fortune estimated at $797m. He is the son of the late Spiros Stamoulis, who started Gold Medal soft drinks in the late 1960s and sold out to Cadbury-Schweppes in 2004.

The younger, Stamoulis, is well known for building a $70m mansion in Melbourne’s Toorak, and he also has a Gold Coast apartment project at Main Beach.

Charter Hall’s unlisted Direct Office Fund last year sold 1 Nicholson St─ a 19-level tower that sits opposite Parliament Gardens – to the private developer.

Cushman & Wakefield is broking the sale of the 25 storey A-Grade office tower on Collins Street. When the block went on the market, the agent said the 31,762sq m A-grade office tower above an integrated food hall had access to top retail, dining, and transport connections.

The building last changed hands in 2014 when Singapore-listed Frasers Centrepoint, controlled by Thai tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, carved the tower out of its commercial holdings and sold it to the Frasers Commercial Trust for $222.5m.

Frasers Centrepoint later merged that vehicle with a Singapore industrial fund, including Australian industrial property assets, creating the Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust.

The building, formerly Stock Exchange House, was built in 1968 and was merged with an 11-level building on Collins Street that was completed in 2005 and refurbished in 2009. A redevelopment with extensions of the existing tower to the Collins Street frontage was completed in mid-2013.

Tenants include the Commonwealth Bank, Eureka International Group, Gartner Australasia, Meridian Lawyers, Think Markets and Vapiano.

Originally published as Property tycoon Stamoulis beats cryptocurrency billionaire Craven to $200m Melbourne block