Developer Gillon supersizes in Bayside

Gillon has negotiated with home owners, commercial property owners, VicRoads and Bayside City Council to amalgamate seven Brighton East lots into a 7500-square-metre development site. At the north-western corner of Nepean Highway and South Road, the site incorporates blocks in Barr Street, and former public land.

It plans to rebuild the site a?? opposite the Kingston City Hall and Moorabbin railway station - into a $100 million-plus mixed-use village with about 200 apartments in what could be a seven-level tower.

Gillon has not disclosed the price it paid to buy and amalgamate the sites. Local agent sources, however, value the land at about $2000 per square metre, meaning Gillon's block could fetch about $15 million if on-sold.

Gillon will soon lodge plans with Bayside City Council for a landmark development within a building envelope and height limits that have already been set. High-rise apartments will have township and Port Phillip water views. The proposal is also expected to include a gymnasium, medical centre or office component.

The site just squeezes into the Brighton East township. The busy intersection divides that suburb from Hampton East, Bentleigh (which is controlled by the Glen Eira Council), and Moorabbin (Kingston Council).

In recent years a building boom has begun in the area, starting with two high-density commission flat towers, one of which will rise seven levels behind the Kingston Arts Centre. That development, which replaces a car park, made headlines when it was approved by the federal and state governments in July 2009 without community consultation.

In the area, Gillon is proposing a mixed-use project at the south-west corner of Bay and Male streets, near North Brighton railway station. It has also rebuilt the former Hampton Rehabilitation Hospital, at the north-east corner of Beach Road and Orlando Street, as a ritzy $100 million-plus residential village, Edgecliff.

The last developer to amalgamate several adjoining blocks to create a prestige supersite was Mirvac. It created a 5000 sq m block around the corner of Burwood Road, Golding and Lynch streets, overlooking Glenferrie Oval in Hawthorn, and then obtained a permit to build an 18,800 sq m office. In September 2009, during the recent economic downturn, Mirvac sold that site to apartment builder Caydon for $12 million.

Office with a view

A SYDNEY-BASED travel agency has outmuscled developers for a lakeside office building at 210 Albert Road in South Melbourne.

The 706-square-metre site includes a five-level, 1733 sq m office with 21 car parks, and was offered with a permit for a two-level extension. Based on the building's sale price of $7.2 million, and the current annual rent of $506,263, the asset sold on a yield of 7 per cent. The owner-occupier is expected to move into the building later this year.

Lemon Baxter's Chris Curtain and Nick Bade marketed 210 Albert Road with Biggin Scott Commercial's Frank Nagle and Marcus Peters.

Opposite the top of Albert Park Lake, and in a part of town seeing much development activity, the rundown office was expected to sell to a developer who might have put up an apartment block on the site.

The office was once occupied by Nissan Finance, which also had naming rights, and was offloaded by private investors.

$5m paper profit

PAPER group PaperlinX is selling its Wesley Vale manufacturing mill in northern Tasmania as part of plans to cease manufacturing in that state.

The ASX-listed company can expect about $5 million, sources say, for the 56.1-hectare block, which includes a vacant 30,000-square-metre factory built in the late 1960s.

Knight Frank agents Andrew Macqueen and Rob Dixon are expecting the site to interest owner-occupiers or an institution that may redevelop the site into an industrial park. The site is near Devonport Airport, sea ports, and the docking station for the Spirit of Tasmania, which crosses Bass Strait to Station Pier, Port Melbourne.

PaperlinX controversially confirmed it would shut the mill almost a year ago.

Little HQ in Hawthorn

ACQUISITIVE builder Little Project Developments a?? backed by millionaire outgoing Toll Holdings executive Paul Little a?? has purchased its next headquarters, in Hawthorn.

The 1144-square-metre site at 41 Burwood Road, opposite the Hawthorn railway station, includes a triple-storey 1400 sq m B-grade office, recognised as the long-time head office of construction company Abigroup.

LPD paid $6.85 million for the building late last year in a deal negotiated by Grayjohnson's Matt Hoath. It includes 42 car spaces and is occupied until next month.

The building is opposite the former VECCI building, at 50 Burwood Road, which is being redeveloped as a major medical centre after selling to a Sydney-based fund manager for $17.1 million about a year ago.

Movement down South

A LOW-RISE South Melbourne office on a large block, and which could make way for an apartment tower in Melbourne's next development cycle, has hit the market.

The 68-70 Dorcas Street building, on the north-east corner of Dodds Street, is expected to sell for $10-$11 million to an investor. The 1478-square-metre site includes a 2300 sq m office, about a third of which is unlet.

Across the road, to the south, German fund SachsenFonds is hoping for about $130 million from the sale of 209 Kingsway, an 11-level, 24,635 sq m office with a prominent BMW car dealership at ground level. This office, and several apartment towers, was developed on the former South Melbourne Tram Depot site.

To the west of 68 Dorcas Street is the Kings Garden Business Park, which owner Asian Pacific Building Corporation failed to sell for $120 million last year before withdrawing from the market.

Knight Frank's Paul Henley and Marcus Quinn, with Kelemen Commercial's Rudy Kelemen and Jonathan Walls, are marketing the Dorcas Street office.

Crema in Prahran

CAMILLO Constructions head Luch Crema has paid $5.1 million for a Prahran development site at 118-126 High Street, opposite Swinburne University.

The Port Melbourne-based developer plans to reconfigure the number of flats proposed within an approved five-level tower, in a move which will result in the site becoming less dense than first anticipated.

Asian Pacific Building Corporation sold the site with a permit for a 69-suite hotel. CB Richard Ellis's Mark Wizel and Scott Orchard were marketing agents.

Druids reap $3.5m

THE Druid Friendly Society has reaped $3.5 million from the sale of a North Melbourne office it has owned since 1988.

The property at 503 Queensberry Street was originally constructed as a warehouse next to the original North Melbourne jail, and was refitted as an office when acquired by Druid. WB Simpson's Richard Simpson and Darrell Simpson sold the property to an owner-occupier.

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