Borders store may be Wesfarmers target

The speculation comes four months after Borders Australia parent REDGroup went into voluntary administration and a week after receiver Ferrier Hodgson announced all Borders shops would close because a buyer could not be found.

Borders chose Challenger Group's renovated Jam Factory shopping centre at 500 Chapel Street to open its first Australian bookshop in 1998. Outside the CBD, Chapel Street commands Melbourne's highest retail rents, which can average about $2000 per square metre a year or more.

Representatives from Target, Coles and Challenger were unavailable for comment. CB Richard Ellis markets Jam Factory retail space, and told Capital Gain no agreement had been reached.

Borders leases prominent retail space in Carlton, Camberwell, Chadstone, Geelong, Knox and Melbourne Central.

Genser takes a punt

LOCAL private developer A Genser & Associates has lodged plans to build another landmark at another, busy eastern suburbs intersection.

Genser plans to rebuild its Richmond HQ, and a collection of neighbouring buildings between 379-387 Punt Road, as a 13-level, 132-unit residential tower configured almost entirely as one-bedroom flats.

The proposed tower, near the south-east corner of Swan Street, will include 137 car park bays.

Council's imminent decision about the proposal comes as the Baillieu government deliberates ways to improve the flow of cars, trucks and buses along Punt Road dubbed a "traffic sewer" and which has become more congested in recent years as new residents and businesses relocate to the area en masse.

Genser is responsible for the $50 million Hive shopping centre and apartment complex, which replaced a Kevin Dennis Motors outlet at the corner of Victoria and Nicholson streets, Abbotsford.

The developer has also recently completed a five-level, 6050-square-metre office at 449 Punt Road, Richmond, abutting the CityLink on-ramp near the pub known until it was demolished in the late 1990s as The Riverside Inn.

Online classified company carsales.com.au recently leased 4784 sq m of this prominent building, as well as naming rights. Colliers International is marketing 449 Punt Road office space for rent between $330 to $340 per square metre a year.

Retire to Hastings

LIFESTYLE Communities, the new name for the delisted company once known as Namberry Ltd, has paid an as yet undisclosed sum for a six-hectare development site in Hastings, in Melbourne's outer south east.

The High Street site will make way for a 150-unit retirement village that will be part of a high-end, master-planned senior's community to be branded Lifestyle Hastings.

The acquisition comes less than a month after a $50 million capital raising by Lifestyle, which says it wants to develop a new affordable seniors village every 12 months.

Elsewhere in Victoria, Lifestyle is building villages at Shepparton and Chelsea Heights. Construction of the Hastings complex is scheduled to begin in mid-2012.

Vineyard glut

TWO vineyards near Geelong have been listed for sale by receivers. Pettavel Vineyard and Winery, on 45 hectares at 65 Pettavel Road in Waurn Ponds, is the most valuable asset, expected to sell for about $5 million.

As well as a function centre and restaurant, the asset includes a 12.5-hectare Shiraz plantation, 6.4-hectare olive grove and a state of the art winery with the capacity to produce 2000 tonnes.

Nearby, at Muhlebach Road, Sutherlands Creek, the Strathmore Vineyard is for sale with price expectations of about $2.5 million. The 129-hectare property includes a fully renovated historic homestead and cottage and a computerised irrigation system. With three kilometres of frontage to the Moorabool River, about half the estate is planted to produce several varieties of wine.

Knight Frank's Michael Hede is acting for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Both properties are being sold as going concerns.

Frankston shines

AFTER a $35 million extension and refurbishment, Colonial First State Global Asset Management has reopened its Bayside Shopping Centre in Frankston.

Bayside credited as being the biggest shopping centre on the Melbourne coast now includes 90,000 square metres of retail space, leased to almost 300 retailers. The centre's dining area, which now accommodates 600, has Port Phillip Bay views. The centre also includes an entire level of fashion retail, and a new Aldi and JB Hi-Fi.

A Colonial spokeswoman said the last of 40 new stores in the centre were due to open within weeks.

Shhh . . . Silverwater

PART of the contentious $80 million Silverwater Resort development - which resulted in the Bass Coast council later being investigated for record-keeping breaches has quietly been listed for sale, again.

The 150-plus room complex, prominent on hilltop farmland overlooking Western Port between San Remo and Anderson, was approved by the Bass Coast council about seven years ago.

In 2009, The Age Investigative Unit reported a series of donations by the project Perth-based developer, who boasted he "bulldozed" the shire into making decisions, which improved the marketability and value of his projects. Bass Coast was subsequently investigated for losing important documentation identifying developer donations but was neither fined or counselled.

Silverwater opened about four years ago on Potters Road. Despite reporting a generally strong trade, one of its major owners went into receivership in 2008. The resort failed to find a buyer when it was subsequently listed for sale with price estimates of about $20 million.

Since 2008, local agency sources say, Silverwater's

room-occupancy has been high because of Wonthaggi desalination workers calling the resort a temporary home.

Under instructions from Receivers KordaMentha, 93 apartments of the apartments are for sale this time around, along with conference and resort facilities.

A permit is offered with the sale to build another 32 flats within the Potters Road resort.

CB Richard Ellis's Scott Callow is marketing Silverwater this time around.

For Block heads

THE addresses, and some of the secret twists that will be promoted as part of Channel Nine's much anticipated television series The Block, have quietly been pushing through the City of Yarra's planning department.

If the show is for you, read Saturday Domain for a spoiler.

marcpallisco@gmail.com