Anaconda gets adventurous at South Wharf

Camping and adventure superstore Anaconda is the first tenant in the 60,000-square-metre shopping centre, the latest building in a mixed-use development that includes a 12-storey office building and a 396-room Hilton hotel.

The Spotlight-owned retailer will lease more than 2500 square metres about 20 times the size of a standard shop and plans to be trading later this year.

Spokesman Steven Carey said Anaconda Docklands would be spread over three levels, with a huge rock-climbing wall and views of the city, Yarra River and Charles Grimes Bridge. He said the store would be the largest adventure store in the country.

Anaconda, which opened its first store about five years ago, now has 18 superstores, including Geelong, Frankston and Bayswater.

South Wharf is one of several projects developed by Austexx, owner of the DFO outlet shopping chain.

The office component was listed for sale mid-construction early last year for about $160 million but no buyers emerged.

Austexx spokesman Geoff Porz was unavailable for comment.

It has been speculated that the South Wharf shopping centre will eventually become an outlet centre, allowing Austexx to capitalise on the superior position of its Spencer Street DFO by converting it to a mainstream mall.

Cars out, students in

DEVELOPMENT activity around the frantic Haymarket roundabout, where Elizabeth Street meets Flemington Road, is about to increase. A student accommodation developer is believed to have paid about $5.6 million for the City Peugeot dealership at 690 Elizabeth Street, near the corner of Pelham Street.

The double-storey dealership, which has rear access to Berkeley Street, was sold with a short-term tenancy to City Peugeot and City Subaru, which will soon move to Port Melbourne.

It is expected the 792-square-metre site will be cleared for a high-density apartment project.

ICR Property Group director Raff De Luise confirmed the sale, but declined to elaborate on the buyer or the price.

Nearby, the University of Melbourne recently paid Drapac about $37 million for the City Ford site at 750 Elizabeth Street, which will make way for a medical school.

Affordable housing association Yarra Community Housing paid about $8.5 million for the Ridgeway Plumbing site at 660-670 Elizabeth Street in 2008 and is currently developing the site.

US gets a neighbour

THE St Kilda Road office building that is home to the US consulate-general is fully leased for the first time since the September 11 terrorist attacks almost eight years ago.

Insurance giant AIA Group has leased 4230 square metres at 553 St Kilda Road, filling the eight-storey office.

CB Richard Ellis director Grant Tinker confirmed the lease but declined to elaborate on details. Rent is speculated to be around $230 per square metre annually.

The presence of the US Government has fuelled security concerns, making the site one of the most difficult in Melbourne to lease. The building has reportedly had a high vacancy rate since 2001.

It has been speculated that the US Government paid substantially more than market rent to compensate the former owner, GE Capital, for potential lost income. GE Capital sold the office to a German investor in July 2008 for $39 million.

Mirvac

MIRVAC is close to selling a suburban office building for about $7.75 million, according to sources.

They say the developer, which last week announced a $1.08 billion loss for the year to June, is in negotiations to sell the former National Foods headquarters in Mulgrave to an investor.

The 2600-square-metre A-grade office at 3032 Compark Circuit, near the busy intersection of Springvale and Wellington roads, has only recently been relet to biotechnology tools company Life Technologies.

That company formed last year when Invitrogen Corporation, in Mount Waverley, and Applied Biosystems, in Scoresby, amalgamated.

National Foods vacated Mulgrave, and another building at 5 Queens Road last year, when it moved to 737 Bourke Street, Docklands, where it also leases naming rights.

Colliers International leasing agent Travis Myerscough said Life Technologies had taken a six-year lease over the entire Mulgrave office.

The building was marketed at a rent of about $240 per square metre a year, with average incentives in the area, between 15 and 20 per cent. He said the Mulgrave office market risked running out of high-quality office space within 18 months as several proposed projects had been shelved.

He would not comment on speculation that Mirvac had resold the Mulgrave office as an investment. A Mirvac spokeswoman declined to comment.

Becton to sell

BECTON can expect to make about $27 million from the sale of the former Wang House office building at 45 William Street in the city, which it listed for sale this week.

The 14-storey, 9010-square-metre office, on the north-west corner of Flinders Lane, is 86 per cent occupied. With a potential annual income of $2.4 million if fully let, the building is expected to sell on a yield between 8.5 and 9 per cent.

Becton investment fund manager Gilston Rush said the sale was part of the fund's strategy to cut net debt. It paid $33.3 million for the building in late 2007.

Jones Lang LaSalle director Robert Anderson is marketing the site with James

Kaufman.

Amcor expands

AMCOR will increase the office space it occupies at Hawthorn's prominent 109 Burwood Road.

The packaging giant will lease another 750 square metres on the ground floor of the near-new Vantage office building, on the north-east corner of Power Street.

The 14,000 sq m building, developed on what was the Vatmi Industries site, was the biggest suburban office to be developed in Melbourne's suburbs without an anchor tenant committed to leasing space.

Amcor reportedly occpies about 6300 sq m in the building, joining engineering firm McConnell Dowell and carsales.com.au, which lease almost all of the balance. Colliers International and GormanKelly are leasing agents.

Across the road from Vantage, private developer Les Smith has found a tenant to occupy the entire top floor of a flash four-storey office at 108 Power Street in Hawthorn, which he also decided to build without first finding a tenant.

Galvin Construction will move from nearby rundown offices in Lynch Street, Hawthorn, to about 1000 sq m in the building, due to open next month.

GormanKelly director Sandro Peluso, who is marketing 108 Power Street with Robert Kelly, confirmed the Galvin deal but would not comment on rents. The building was being marketed online at a rental of about $340 a sq m a year.