Mall giant keen to sell $1.57b Box Hill shopping centre development
Mall giant Vicinity is aiming to sell its controversial $1.57 billion, seven-tower development proposal that includes Box Hill Central North shopping centre, but it won’t discuss a price.
It’s understood Vicinity received an unsolicited approach from an interested buyer to take over the 1700-unit development, which was approved in June by Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny as part of the state government’s Development Facilitation Program, aimed at building more homes around Suburban Rail Loop stations. Three of the towers are to stand more than 40 storeys.
Vicinity has been approached about selling its Box Hill shopping centre and the plan to develop residential towers.Credit:
The plans for the development will be sold alongside the operating shopping centre that has multiple tenants over two floors providing 14,600 square metres of leasing area.
The Box Hill shopping centre sits above the suburb’s railway and bus station and is divided into two parts, North and South.
The busy railway station is under Box Hill South, a 25,453-square-metre shopping centre, which has recently had fresh retail and office space added. According to Vicinity’s website, that part of the centre, which also includes the bus hub, is worth about $271 million.
Back in 2001, Box Hill North had an estimated value of $114 million, but Vicinity does not reveal book values for centres worth less than $125 million. The value of the development permit will guide the price but with the market in a state of flux, what the shopping centre giant ends up with is an unknown quantity.
Vicinity, which also owns Chadstone shopping centre, declined to comment.
The listing doesn’t come at a great time for the Box Hill market, with Chinese developer APH Holding already listing several development sites for sale as it winds back its operations to two key projects.
The tower development project was first mooted as part of a program to add value to shopping centres with extra office towers and apartments above buildings and on extensive car parking. The rising cost of construction has taken the heat out of that equation.
CBRE agents Trent Hobart, David Minty, JJ Heng and James Douglas, with Cushman & Wakefield’s Leon Ma and Oliver Hay, are shopping the asset.
City bargain
Sinking CBD property values have delivered a bargain into the hands of investor Renato Del Monaco, who is understood to have snapped up 411 Collins Street for just under $30 million.
JLL agents Josh Rutman, Nick Peden and MingXuan Li did the deal but declined to comment on price or buyer.
The 3015-square-metre building last changed hands in 2021 for $40.5 million when Cushman & Wakefield agents Daniel Wolman and Oliver Hay sold it to Greg Rosshandler’s Peachtree Capital.
411 Collins Street sold for almost $30 million.
Rosshandler spent a further $6 million revamping the office. Online Chinese retailer Alibaba is among the tenants in the former Roy Morgan Centre, a nine-storey office built in 1930 in the modern Gothic style.
The Del Monaco family already owns a building around the corner at 13-17 Queen Street. They paid $9.3 million at auction for Lombard House in 2010, just as Melbourne was recovering from its last great values plunge after the global financial crisis.
Also on the market is 525 Flinders Street, a nine-storey office of 10,271 square metres built on the King Street corner on the Yarra.
Once the historic fish market, the site was a car park for decades until the Oceanis Group and Far East Consortium redeveloped it in 2009.
The Uniting Church paid $50 million in 2011 before it was completed and flipped it the next year for just $50.86 million to Swiss fund AFIAA.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Nick Rathgeber, Leigh Melbourne with Wolman, Hay and Ma are handling expressions of interest. The current quote is still $50 million.
Meanwhile, Sydney investor Eduard Litver has hopes for a big boost to the bargain $23.75 million he paid for the Ibis hotel at 97-103 Elizabeth Street in early 2022.
His current asking price is more than $35 million, which has raised some eyebrows. Accor’s lease on the three-star hotel expires in 2027.
Wolman, Hay and Ma are handling the listing, along with CBRE’s Wayne Bunz and Scott Callow.
Chunk of Chinatown
Property values on Bourke Hill, which is dominated by the new 4½ star hotel Le Meridien and prospective venues operated by Chris Lucas and the O’Brien Group, are holding up where other parts of the CBD are sinking by 20-25 per cent.
A big chunk of Bourke Hill and Chinatown is up for sale with Hong Kong-based owners Choi Wing On & Co listing 146-160 Bourke Street and 139 Little Bourke Street.
The likely price for the bumper site comprising 1909 square metres is more than $50 million. In 1990, the Choi family paid $13.01 million for the property and its neighbour, 144 Bourke Street.
The buildings at 146-158 Bourke Street are for sale.
It’s a salutary reminder of Melbourne’s epic property cycles that Choi Wing On bought the properties after the collapse of a $16.1 million deal signed in 1989. That would have been when the eagerly awaited Virgin Megastore moved into the imposing art deco Bourke Street building.
Built for Paterson’s Furniture in 1934, the building is now leased to Paddy Pallin. At the rear, Ballers Clubhouse is in the 1800-square-metre building at 2 Coverlid Place, occupied for many years by the Charltons bar and billiards hall.
The site covers three buildings on five titles, with 5062 square metres of lettable space. Six tenants pay more than $1.64 million in rent. Ryder Commercial’s Mark Ryder, Paul Sberna and David Gibellini have the listing.
Church disposal
The Uniting Church will reap $16.5 million from the sale of an aged care property in blue-chip Brighton.
The Uniting Church has sold its property at 453 New Street, Brighton.
The buyer of the 6060-square-metre landholding at 453 New Street is planning to subdivide the vacant land and occupy the existing building, a heritage-listed mansion, Tullavin, which was built in 1859.
The local buyer, who has not lodged a caveat, must have driven a hard bargain. The original quote for the former AgeWell centre was about $20 million.
“There was considerable interest from traditional developers looking to develop townhouses and medium density apartments but also those who investigated a residential subdivision of the overall site, taking advantage of its multiple street frontages,” said Colliers’ Jozef Dickinson, who handled negotiations with Ian Sanders and Justin Hazell.
Records show the vendor, the Uniting Church Property Trust, was bequeathed the property in 1978 after a parishioner’s death.
Homeware shop
Half of the original home of Melbourne homewares shop Minimax is for sale in Hawksburn Village.
Minimax occupies two shops on the coveted strip. It started trading out of 585 Malvern Road more than 50 years ago and expanded into 581-583 Malvern Road in 1989.
Next door to Woolworths, the 947-square-metre shop returns about $312,000 annually.
Records show it changed hands in 2018 for $6.28 million. The current expectation is for more than $6.5 million.
Cushman & Wakefield agents George Davies, Raphael Favas, Jeff Ha and Leon Ma have the listing.
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