This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
BARELY more than a year from its acquisition, Swinburne University has moved to offload a Flinders Ln building in the Melbourne CBD as higher education providers scramble to find sources of capital in the absence of international students.
It is the second city building in a matter of days to be put to the market by a university. RMIT is hoping to release $120 million of capital by offering its 14 level 235 Bourke St tower with a leaseback.
Swinburne bought the seven level Invicta House, at 226 Flinders Ln, for $44 million last year for a new vertical campus, but is now staring at a $150 million hole and job cuts due to the loss of lucrative international student fees during the pandemic.
RMIT is facing an $853 million fee shortfall, according to researchers at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education. Universities Australia expects $16 billion in revenue to be wiped out between now and 2023 across the country’s tertiary education sector. The University of New South Wales is expecting a $370 million hit, and Monash University a $300 million revenue shortfall.
Both have slashed hundreds of jobs, joined by Charles Sturt University, while the University of Wollongong, University of Tasmania and Southern Cross University have all been looking to negotiate staff salary cuts in a bid to save jobs.
Colliers agents Daniel Wolman, Matthew Stagg, and Oliver Hay have been appointed to sell Invicta House, formerly home to Victoria Police and Greenhouse Backpackers and now offered with vacant possession.
“This creates an exciting opportunity for the next purchaser to acquire a superbly located commercial building that offers boundless investment, value add and development potential,” Wolman said.
Invicta House has a gross building area of 6,482 sqm with an underlying land area of 741 sqm and frontage of 18.22 metres to Flinders Ln.
He said the building’s location and capital city 2 zoning allow for opportunities to add value by activating the ground floor retail, redeveloping into a boutique hotel, refurbishing for office use or converting for serviced apartment or residential conversion.
The building has a basement and rooftop terrace, and is situated on the corner of Monaghan Pl, metres away from Swanston St – the Melbourne CBD’s main thoroughfare for commuters travelling to and from the CBD via Flinders Street train station – and the Town Hall station, currently being built as part of the $11 billion Metro Tunnel project.
Expressions of interest close 10th September.
