This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
GOLDEN Age has divested a Spring Street site in Melbourne’s CBD earmarked for a high-end apartment and hotel development, as residential projects fall out of favour across the city amid the housing downturn.
Fund manager Anton Capital has picked up the 85 Spring Street site for $112 million and will refurbish the existing vacant 16-level office building before re-leasing.
Anton reportedly has backing in the deal from Hong Kong-based groups CC Land and CSI Properties.
Headed by Jeff Xu, Golden Age acquired the site for $75 million from Grocon two years ago and launched a $200 million project with a 39-level tower comprising 138 apartments and a 26-level, 250-room hotel.
Last year, Charter Hall acquired the controversial 555 Collins Street site in the CBD for $140 million from Singaporean group Fragrance, adding to an adjoining site it already owns to create a corner block of 4,620 sqm fronting King Street that it will use for an office development. Fragrance had planned a 625-unit residential tower in place of the existing 24-level office building but struggled with slow pre-sales.
That followed Mirvac’s recent decision to redevelop the Australian Federal Police headquarters at 383 La Trobe Street into a new A-grade office tower of 40,000 sqm.
Mirvac paid Sterling Global $122 million for the site, which was keen to take on famed French architect Jean Nouvel’s design for a $700 million building with 488 one, two and three-bedroom apartments and 98 hotel rooms.
Twelve months ago, Chinese-backed, Sydney-based developer Besgate put three city sites representing a $750 million pipeline of residential projects to the market.
They included a 790 sqm site at 140 King Street with approval for a 57-level, 263-apartment tower. A new marketing campaign for the site, which currently has a three-level commercial building, was launched in February with expectations of fetching more than $20 million.
The initial campaign ran concurrently to that of the 12-level 601 Bourke Street office building next door, put to the market by Pragmatic Education Group, meaning 1,700 sqm of corner real estate was up for grabs. An offshore Asian buyer elected to take 601 Bourke Street on its own for around $72 million.
Besgate’s trio of listings also included a 2,764 sqm site further west, at 640 Bourke Street, which has approval for a 71-level dual-tower development with more than 800 apartments, retail and office space; and 558-566 Swanston Street on the northern edge of the CBD.
That 1,600 sqm site was offered with approval for a 12-level boutique development of 159 units, and was picked up by student accommodation provider Scape for $31.5 million.
Australian Property Journal
