A Box Hill site with a permit to build what was, until this year, Melbourne's tallest suburban skyscraper, will soon have a new owner.
The 545 Station Street property was quietly listed for sale earlier this year as a development opportunity. Just weeks earlier the vendor was targeting consumers to flog the 419 units in the proposed 34-level tower.
Sovereign Square, as it was branded, would abut the Box Hill Central shopping centre and train station and also include ground floor retail and a basement car park.
When approved last year, it was metropolitan Melbourne's tallest proposed apartment tower. That accolade is now held by the Capitol Grand proposal in South Yarra, permitted earlier this year to rise some 50 levels.
Last month, the Deague family's Asian Pacific Building Corporation received the green light to replace 850 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill, with two apartment buildings rising 36 and 26 levels. An imposing 20-level office building is under construction at 913 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill.
The 2417-square-metre Station Street site was being marketed with price expectations of about $40 million by Knight Frank's Marcus Quinn and Paul Henley with CBRE's Mark Wizel and Ed Wright.
Near the junction
A China-based development consortium is paying a speculated $7.5 million for a modest office building near the St Kilda Junction.
On a sizeable 1053-square-metre parcel at 194-198 St Kilda Road, the asset was offered with a permit for a six-level, 73-unit apartment complex with two ground-floor shops. It is not expected the new owner will amend the permit before marketing the flats soon after settlement.
The office is next door to the low-rise office for years occupied by radio stations MMM and Fox FM, which used a "rooftop" balcony area for intimate live shows with local and international entertainers.
Savills agents Jesse Radisich, Julian Heatherich and Nick Peden marketed 194-198 St Kilda Road for investors who bought the block for $3.4 million at the start of the last economic downturn in mid-2008.
Much closer to the junction, at 3-5 St Kilda Road, local developer Caydon is building a 27-level apartment tower.
Also in St Kilda, a rundown office building at 25-29 Alma Road sold late this week for about $9 million. The corner site, offered with a permit for a 75-unit complex, was marketed by Beller Commercial's Sam Fogarty and Brendan Goss.
Malvern addition
LANDIS Property has paid $6 million for a residential development site in ritzy Malvern.
Currently zoned Industrial, the Como Street block, just off Glenferrie Road and near the Malvern train station, covers 934 square metres. Gross Waddell's Andrew Greenway and Jonathon McCormack managed the off-market sales campaign. The land is currently configured with a low-rise office and car park.
In Melbourne, the Landis property portfolio includes Grace Apartments in Essendon, Cedar Apartments in Caulfield North and Queens Apartments in Carlton.
Commercial opportunity
A developer has swooped on 16 hectares of commercial-zoned land between Geelong and Torquay, in a speculated $6 million deal.
The Airport Road property in Mount Duneed sold prior to an auction scheduled for late last month.
Marketed as a lifestyle opportunity or a land bank, the property is within the Urban Growth Boundary, which would make development straightforward. Near the Princes and Surf Coast highways, the land is near Villawood's Armstrong Creek housing estate and Deakin University's Waurn Ponds campus.
Darcy Jarman's Tim Jarman and Simon Jarman declined to comment on any part of the Mt Duneed campaign when contacted.
In the area, last month, a property co-owned by a consortium including Essendon Football Club legend Mark Thompson and businessman, Mark Casey, was listed with price expectations of about $30 million. The 16 hectare Armstrong Creek parcel at 458-498 Torquay Road is expected to become a major activity precinct and collection of housing estates.
In north-west Geelong earlier this year, two almost neighbouring sites measuring more than 60 hectares sold in separate deals for about $20 million. These Lovely Banks rural blocks are also expected to make way for thousands of new residents.
Coburg Hill
Plans for an $80 million industrial business park will add a substantial tranche of modern commercial stock around the area recently rebranded Coburg Hill.
The park is now earmarked for a nine-hectare site at 105 Newlands Road, which just sold for a speculated $8 million. The land is opposite an office building once owner-occupied by Kodak, which disposed of it, several years ago.
A second portion of the former Kodak site on the east side of Edgars Creek has recently been replaced as Coburg Hill, a medium density housing estate with some retail components.
Colliers International's Marco Sandrin and Brent Glassford marketed 105 Newlands Road which is about 10 kilometres north of the CBD. The site includes about 28,000 square metres of warehouse space and substantial hardstand zones. It's expected to be replaced with a new business park accommodating up to 100 small multi-storey office warehouses.
Blocks less than half the size on either side of 105 Newlands Road have been developed as industrial parks with more than 30 separate office warehouses. Mr Sandrin said the future development or subdivision potential of the site, coupled with the existing income, saw it contested by several parties. The agents declined to comment about the sale price.
Borrowed light
What a difference a change of government has made to the number of major proposals.
Last month, no applications were lodged with the planning minister Richard Wynne to replace metropolitan Melbourne blocks with projects of greater than 25,000 square metres. This compares to nine applications lodged in March 2014 when the now opposition leader, Matthew Guy, controversially presided over the Planning portfolio.
For the first quarter of 2015, three major metropolitan proposals were lodged to Mr Wynne for review. In the corresponding period, last year, 17 were lodged to Mr Guy, who had already earned the nickname "Mr Skyscraper" in planning circles.
One of the most controversial permits granted in March 2014 was a 62-level, 511-unit complex with zero car parks at 97-105 Franklin Street in the CBD.
The jury is out as to whether the noticeable deceleration in planning applications this year is a good thing, given Melbourne's burgeoning population. Many developers who obtained ministerial approvals have onsold their assets for a profit.
Mr Wynne this week discouraged developers proposing towers with apartments that would rely on borrowed light (i.e., radiance from another room that has a window).
Email: marcpallisco@gmail.com
Twitter: @marcpallisco
