This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
PRIVATE developer Orchard Piper has acquired a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Melbourne’s Toorak, giving it a $550 million residential and commercial project pipeline in the ritzy suburb.
It has paid $67 million for the 3,600 sqm parcel at 7-11A and 17-19 Carters Avenue and will look to deliver a $400 million mixed-use precinct with high-end residential and retail and commercial suites.
In August last year it picked up the 1,000 sqm corner property on the corner of Toorak Road and Mathoura Road for $20 million, and has since expanded the property by a further 400 sqm with the purchase of two neighbouring sites. There, it is planning $150 million worth of luxury apartments, offices and shops on the site, located within the Toorak Village shopping precinct, with construction to begin early next year.
Also in the precinct, at 489-505 Toorak Road, Vicland Property Group is planning a $600 million redevelopment that will house about 12,000 sqm of office space and a ground floor Coles supermarket.
The Carters Avenue acquisition follows two years of direct negotiations between co-vendors the Hagen family, which owned the property with the family of the late John Worrell, and Orchard Piper, and an expressions of interest campaign.
“The Worrell family began piecing this land together in 1932, following World War I, which eventuated in this un-repeatable parcel on the doorstep of Toorak Village,” said Orchard Piper directors Rick Gronow and Luke McKie.
“It is now widely acknowledged that Toorak Village is coming into a new era.”
The first car dealership on the Carters Avenue site was established by John Worrell’s father Ted, and joined by John in 1943. Karl Hagen became a business partner 20 years later, and the business was run as Worrells Mercedes-Benz dealership until they retired in 2004. It was renamed Mercedes Benz Toorak in 2009.
Fourteen bids totalling in excess of $700 million of capital were made in the campaign, according to selling agents CBRE and Allard Shelton.
“Given the site’s substantial footprint within the very heart of Melbourne’s most prestigious suburb, it marked a truly once in a lifetime opportunity for the variety of significant development outcomes it offered”, said Allard Shelton director, Joseph Walton.
“The sale process was hotly contested, with the expressions of interest campaign generating in excess of 200 genuine buyer enquiries and, more importantly, a total of 14 offers from local, interstate and international parties.”
Toorak has recorded median house price of 12% to $5.5 million, the highest in Victoria, with $1 billion in luxury residential home sales in 2021.
Orchard Piper now has a $1.1 billion pipeline of project in blue-chip suburbs. Designs for the revamping of the Mercedes Benz location are set to be unveiled in 2023, with construction to commence the following year in-line with Mercedes’ lease ending.
