This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
A THREE-level Melbourne CBD retail building, home to iconic Greek eatery International Cakes, has sold to a Chinese purchaser at a sharp 3.94% yield.
The new owner paid $10.5 million for the 550 sqm building, at a floor rate of $22,555 per sqm, which is on a 188 sqm site at 185-187 Lonsdale Street.
It sold with new 10-year leases to two long-standing tenants on the ground floor and refurbished upper floors, with current net income at $400,000 per annum.
Savills agents Nick Peden and Clinton Baxter sold the property with Burgess Rawson’s Jamie Perlinger and Nick Breheny.
The property was on the market via private sale two years ago with an asking price $9.9 million. International Cakes founder Bill Bitz acquired the property in 1979 for $300,000 in an off-market deal, nine years after the business began operating from the premises.
International Cakes has a lease over the ground floor until March 2020 with three five-year options, while the upper floors include new fairytale-themed club Storyville in the former Wah Wah Lounge space.
The building is on a corner site with a total frontage of 30 metres to Lonsdale Street and Waratah Place, opposite QV shopping centre and on a block that backs onto Melbourne’s 24-hour Chinatown precinct.
An Asian investor paid almost $8 million to VIC Investment Management Group for the ground and basement levels at 137 Bourke Street in the CBD at a 4.00% yield, with Japanese restaurant Ishizuka in the basement space, while a local buyer purchased the 300 sqm home of steak restaurant A Hereford Beefstouw at 22 Duckboard Place for $4.35 million, at 4.50%.
Australian Property Journal
