Money, money, money, it's a rich man's museum

ABBAworld will be based at Federation Square's Yarra Building, which overlooks the Yarra River, between the Transport building (currently for sale at around $30 million) and the BMW Edge building.

The Yarra Building will be reconfigured into an interactive museum with 25 themed rooms, ABBA memorabilia and a space visitors can digitally appear in film clips and on album covers with the band.

CB Richard Ellis' agents Max Cookes and Mark Wizel were marketing the 2034 square metre space at a rental of $1 million per annum, but declined to comment on any part of the terms. A Dainty representative was unavailable.

It's speculated ABBAworld's lease is for at least six months, with renewal options.

The Swedish pop group's name is an acronym formed from the first letters of each member's first name: Anni-Frid (Lyngstad), Benny (Andersson), Bjorn (Ulvaeus) and Agnetha (Faltskog).

ABBA dominated the charts until breaking up in 1983. In 2008, the band rejected an offer of $1 billion to reform.

Origin property sales

ORIGIN Energy has sold a portfolio of five Victorian retail properties for $10.05 million.

The ASX-listed company said that after a review of its retail market presence, the shops, which the company has owned since the 1960s, were surplus to its needs.

In Melbourne, Origin offloaded a shop and office in Bentleigh's Centre Road shopping strip for $3.8 million, while in Oakleigh, a shop in Portman Street sold for $2.67 million at a low 2.5 per cent yield.

At 452 Sydney Road in Coburg, a former Origin shop that is now occupied by the Salvation Army sold for $1.35 million.

Outgoing Origin assets also sold at auction this week in Ballarat (for $1.1 million) and Geelong ($1.125 million).

St Kilda Road $22m

DEVELOPER Hudson Conway is speculated to be paying about $22 million for a prominent St Kilda Road development site opposite Wesley College, capable of accommodating several high-rise apartment towers.

Hudson Conway is believed to be in advanced negotiations to buy the 553 St Kilda Road site, which Sydney-based developer Stockland purchased from Vision Australia for $28.3 million in 2007.

Stockland reportedly sold the subdivided Belgian Beer Cafe bluestone building that was part of the Vision Australia property for a $7 million last year after undertaking a $2 million renovation.

The area known as the Belgian Beer Cafe's garden forecourt, and up to the corner of St Kilda Road and Moubray Street, is earmarked for redevelopment.

Elsewhere in the area, the developer is seeking a permit for a 32-level apartment complex at 2-4 Yarra Street in South Yarra, which it is also expected to sell.

A Stockland spokeswoman declined to comment about any St Kilda Road sale when contacted by Capital Gain. Hudson Conway did not return calls. Ernst & Young's Marcus Willison, understood to also be involved in the transaction, was unavailable.

Chain reaction

THE biggest charity event in Melbourne's commercial property calendar pedals off tomorrow.

The Chain Reaction bike ride, which unites otherwise competing developers, consultants, and real estate agents through a scenic but gruelling week-long route, will take off from Port Macquarie.

This year, participants will ride what could be a very wet 1000 kilometres to Noosa Heads, in an attempt to raise money to set up and maintain the Starlight Room at the Monash Medical Centre, and support the Better Buddies program run by the Alannah & Madeline Foundation.

ISPT executives Daryl Browning and Renee Nutbean, builder Crema Camillo's Luch Camillo, Melbourne Airport development manager Jamie Jowett, Knight Frank managing director Paul Burns and KordaMentha partner Berrick Wilson, who established the charity bike ride in 2007, are among the 36 riders.

Goldmans Troy Upfield, architect Shane Rothe of Rothelowman, and Josh Slattery of Slattery Australia are among the highest fund-raisers so far this year.

Donations to specific riders can be made at: www.chain-reaction.org.au

If the shoe fits

BOURKE Street's prominent former Emporio Shoes building has hit the rental market.

The 97-year old four-level retail premises, formerly known as the Francis & Co building at 280-282 Bourke Street, includes 74 square metres of ground floor space, and another 465 sq m in the basement and on upper levels.

Emporio shoes traded from the building (formerly occupied by the Body Shop) for about 15 years until its parent company, the Figgins Group, went into administration in 2009.

The building is expected to rent for about $900,000 per annum or $1670 per square metre per annum, according to Savills' Michael Di Carlo, who is marketing the building with Ryan McCormack.

Bourke Street Mall is Melbourne's most expensive retail space to rent.

Average ground floor rents (for an assumed 100 sq m shop) are about $6000 to $7000 per square metre per annum, Mr Di Carlo said.

However, some tenants in the strip are paying about $10,000 per square metre annually for the address.

Collins Street sale

AFTER paying GIO $16.5 million for 480 Collins Street and then converting the building into a serviced office and apartment complex Asian Pacific Building Corporation owned by establishment family the Deagues is selling the development's strata titled ground floor retail component.

APBC can expect to make about $11 million from the portfolio of nine fully leased shops, returning between $32,000 and $87,000 in annual rent.

CBRE's Mark Wizel, who is marketing the property with Max Cookes and Sebastian Drapac, says average yields for sub $2 million retail investments of which all the APBC shops are now circles between 5 and 6 per cent, an improvement on the average 6 to 6.75 per cent, recorded last year.

Yarrawonga motoring

YARRAWONGA's prominent Pigdon Motors site may be redeveloped into a relatively major shopping centre with a speculated end value of about $20 million.

The Moira Shire Council is reviewing an application to develop a 3500 square metre supermarket, which would be leased to Woolworths, and 11 specialty shops on the site at the southern edge of the town centre.