Central Equity secures $24m site at Point Cook

Sources say the privately owned developer, which made its name building Southbank skyscrapers in the 1990s, will land-bank the 275 Sneydes Road site until it can get a new low-density housing project approved.

The site needs to be rezoned and was not marketed with a permit.

Central Equity is already marketing the Featherbrook estate in Point Cook, not far from its latest acquisition.

Featherbrook includes a commercial component with a bistro, TAB, gaming room and 250-seat multi-purpose room.

A Central Equity representative was unavailable when contacted by Capital Gain. Kelemen Commercial's Andrew Egan and Rudy Kelemen, who marketed the site, declined to comment on any part of a deal.

Other prominent developers in Point Cook include AMP, Costa Properties, Peet & Co, Villawood and Walker Corporation.

Last week, FKP released the first land titles for its $600 million Saltwater Coast housing estate at the eastern-most boundary of the suburb, abutting Port Phillip.

Golf course auction

MORNINGTON Peninsula's St Andrews Beach Golf Course and Resort, which includes the opportunity to build another golf course and resort, will be put to auction after failing to sell during the economic downturn.

Up for grabs is the newly reopened Gunnamatta course, a temporary club house and 20 apartments.

A second part of the site includes a permit for another 18-hole golf course and club house, a 40-room hotel, a licensed commercial premises and 100 apartments.

The Tom Doak-designed St Andrews Beach Golf Course reopened in October, with the operator, Golf Services Management Group, starting a three-year lease.

Selling agent Michael Hede, of Knight Frank, says the St Andrews Beach Golf Course at Sandy Road is the highest-ranked pay-per-play golf course in the state.

He expects the properties to sell for about $8 million.

The site was listed for sale almost two years ago by both administrators of Golf Club Properties and the receiver and manager of Golf Club Developments Pty Ltd.

The property is being offered by the mortgagee in possession.

$11.2m in Hawthorn

A FIRST-TIME property investor has paid $11.2 million for an office building at one of the busiest intersections in the south-eastern suburbs.

The two-level office is on a 2439-square-metre block at the corner of Auburn and Toorak roads, and is prominent around the busy CityLink freeway junction, which is also the suburb border for Malvern, Hawthorn, Hawthorn East and Glen Iris.

The building, with a street address of 461-465 Auburn Road, Hawthorn East, is leased for about four more years but offers redevelopment potential, being in a pocket of the south-eastern suburbs that is seeing higher-density redevelopment.

Earlier this year, Woolworths paid Leighton Properties $21.93 million for the three-hectare site across the road from 461-465 Auburn Road, once the site of the Gas & Fuel Corporation of Victoria's Tooronga gasometer.

Woolworths is said to be considering redeveloping a big hardware store at the site, as part of its expansion into the sector.

Leighton had obtained a permit for a bulky goods complex for the land. Leighton purchased the site from Australand, which had obtained a permit to develop apartments, sources say.

Stockland's huge Tooronga Village redevelopment is a block away.

Jones Lang LaSalle director Steven Messina and Matthieu Lucas marketed the Hawthorn East site.

Mr Messina said the transaction marked an important step to recovery for the south-eastern office market, as it was the first property reported to sell for more than $10 million, on a yield of less than 8 per cent (7.9 per cent), since the economic downturn began.

The site includes a newly refurbished 2783 sq m office, two basement storerooms and parking for 84 cars.

Baracon wraps it up

BARACON has abandoned plans to build a $100 million-plus, 41-level skyscraper in Southbank and listed the development site for sale.

Baracon can expect to make about $12 million on the sale of the 1344-square-metre site at 133-139 City Road, which will be sold with a permit for a 284-unit complex.

In 2008 and during the economic downturn, Baracon marketed an apartment project called Wrap, which was to have included 108 hotel suites on lower levels and 176 "own-your-own" apartments up top.

But tight finance requirements resulting from the economic downturn made it difficult for smaller developers to complete large-scale projects.

The site is opposite the BMW Melbourne dealership, and near the 141-145 City Road property that Central Equity bought from Crown Casino in December for $13.1 million.

In February, Central Equity announced plans to build a 43-level, 513-unit complex on part of that site, which Crown occupied as a training college.

Other developers in the Southbank area include Mario Salvo and DEC.

Savills director Clinton Baxter said he expected Baracon's outgoing site to arouse interest from local and international developers.

Several major CBD and inner-city development sites were sold in the first quarter of this year, with overseas developers becoming more prominent buyers.

Singapore-based Chip Eng Seng Corporation is planning a 32-level, 350-plus unit complex on a Mackenzie Street site that it bought for $20.2 million last month.

Malaysia-based Setia International is believed to be planning at least one apartment skyscraper, on a 4340 sq m Franklin Street

site it bought from businessman Solomon Lew for $30.85 million.

QLS on the move

THIRD-PARTY logistics sector group QLS has paid $9.15 million for two adjoining industrial facilities in central Dandenong, a major commercial hub once marketed as Melbourne's "second city".

QLS has bought a 3.2-hectare site at Kitchen Road, which includes two buildings totalling 15,000 square metres.

For now, it will play landlord for the two assets, which are leased, but the group will eventually move into the buildings.

Meanwhile, the service provider has leased a 22,000 sq m building in Pound Road, Dandenong, paying a starting annual rent of $1.5 million, or about $68 a sq m a year.

QLS will relocate from a smaller facility it has outgrown, also in Dandenong.

Knight Frank national director, industrial, James Templeton negotiated the sale and lease deals.

He expects industrial construction in Melbourne's south-eastern region to fall to 135,000 sq m next year, from just under 300,000 sq m of industrial space set to open in the area this year.

Stadium-side sale

AUSTRALAND is selling a 4000-square-metre inner-city development site wedged between Collingwood Football Club's Victoria Park stadium and the Yarra River.

The Abbotsford property at 80-110 Trenerry Crescent will be sold with a permit for a nine-level residential building with 94 units.

Australand has already developed townhouses on part of the site, which is near Dights Falls, and next to the prominent Australian Education Union's Victorian branch offices.

Colliers International's Peter Bremner, Jeremy Gruzewski and David Grima are expecting about $7.5 million for Australand's Trenerry Crescent site.