This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
The home of The Age newspaper on 250 Spencer Street, Melbourne is on the market through agents Jones Lang LaSalle.
Jones Lang LaSalle’s James Kaufman and Greg Penn will be marketing the property, which is expected to fetch more than $50 million.
Kaufman told Australian Property Journal that the property is been marketed as a development opportunity.
“The Age is sitting on a site area of 1.52 hectares in the Melbourne CBD on an entire city clock. In addition, the property is located opposite the Spencer Street Railway station and overlooking Melbourne’s Docklands,” he added.
Currently on the site, are a main office building and five older style offices and industrial properties with a total gross building area of 37,846 sqm. In addition to The Age, the other occupants on the site include Fairfax Digital, which houses the operations of Domain.com.au and Domaincommercial.com.au – a news partner of Australian Property Journal.
In the past, The Age had its printing facility located behind its offices, however, the facility has been relocated to a $220 million state-of-the-art building near Tullamarine Airport.
Currently, the site is zoned Capital City Zone under the City of Melbourne Planning Scheme.
“The site has enormous potential, it can be redeveloped into a new office tower or a mixed-used office/residential and retail development or it can be subdivided and sold separately. Or the buyers can just refurbish the existing building and add to it.
“There are existing heritage overlays on some of the older style buildings, which will have to be incorporated to any new developments,” Kaufman said.
Meanwhile, Australian Property Journal reported earlier this year that The Age is set to move to a new $70 million headquarters in the Docklands precinct.
Market sources told Australian Property Journal, The Age has been in the market for a new home for the past decade.
The new The Age headquarters will have approximately 15,000 sqm of space.
John Fairfax Holdings confirmed The Age was on the move last month along with the announcement that Fairfax’s Sydney operations will also be moving to One Darling Island in Pyrmont.
Fairfax has signed a 20-year lease at One Darling Island, a new 22,000 sqm A-grade commercial office building comprising ground floor office and retail and five upper levels of office.
Fairfax has resided at Darling Park for 11 years and the move will affect up to 2000 employees. The Sydney relocation will be completed by the middle of next year
By Nelson Yap
