Restaurateur has his fill of revamped Campari

Mr Zampelis, who has been both an owner-occupier and landlord at 23-25 Hardware Lane, can expect to make about $4.5 million from the sale of the building, home to the drinking and dining institution since 1968.

Mr Zampelis paid $1.46 million for the building in January 2000, occupying it for a few years before leasing it to tenants, which eventually led to its closure.

Last year Mr Zampelis struck a new lease deal with operator Australian Pacific Hospitality Management, which resulted in the three-storey building, and its famous rooftop garden, being completely refurbished.

The building, which reopened under the Campari brand four weeks ago, will now be sold as an investment with a 12-year lease as Mr Zampelis reweights his portfolio.

APHM's other hospitality ventures in Melbourne include restaurants Scusa Mi in Southbank, Watermark in Docklands, the Lakes Entrance Golf Club, the Dandenong Club and Knox Club.

John Castran, director of real estate agency John H. Castran, is marketing Campari and two other properties owned by Mr Zampelis.

They are a retail investment, with redevelopment potential, at 98-100 Chapel Street, Prahran, near the Windsor train station, which is expected to sell for about $4 million, and an investment property in Glenhuntly, leased to Chemist Warehouse, which is also expected to sell for about $4 million. There is speculation Mr Zampelis, who has opened more than 70 hospitality venues in Victoria since the late 1980s, including Cafe Greco, The Long Room and Silk Road, had earmarked the Prahran and Glenhuntly sites as restaurants.

Showpiece Coles

STATE member for Melbourne, Bronwyn Pike, will today open Coles' new $40 million shopping centre, on land once part of the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds, in the inner north-west suburb of Ascot Vale.

The Showgrounds Village Shopping Centre will include a 3650-square-metre Coles "concept" supermarket, which uses about 15 per cent less energy than the average Coles store and produces a third less waste.

The shopping centre includes 28 speciality shops, 500 square metres of offices and a childcare centre, built into the historic Woodfull Pavilion.

The showgrounds shrank from 27 hectares to 18 as part of a $146 million revamp announced by the State Government in late 2004. About 4.5 hectares were removed from each of the western and eastern boundaries of the showground site to make way for shops and commercial projects.

In May, former lord mayor Kevin Chamberlin suggested city planners should extend the train line that currently operates temporarily to the showgrounds, to Maribyrnong, where a new 128-hectare, 3000-home suburb is planned on the former Department of Defence explosives factory site.

Developing interest

THE pocket around South Melbourne Market may see yet another crane, if developers buy the Southern Cross Hotel on the south-west corner of Cecil and Market streets, on the suburb border of Southbank.

The two-storey hotel will be sold later this year with vacant possession, meaning prospective hotel operators will have to compete with developers, who could propose a medium or high-density apartment tower for the site. It is expected to sell for about $2 million.

The Southern Cross Hotel abuts the Novak panel beater portfolio of properties, which was put to the market last year for about $20 million, but failed to sell. It is also opposite the former Spotlight retail building, which sources say will soon make way for an Aldi store, and a Dan Murphy's liquor store.

Rosin Smyth & Partners selling agent Martin Smyth said the Southern Cross Hotel would be sold with a licence and footpath trading permit.

Elite location

ELITE Sports Properties sports and marketing managers for identities including Nathan Buckley, Eamon Sullivan and Mark Skaife (pictured) have moved from offices in the Rydges Riverwalk complex on the banks of the Yarra River, to another Richmond office closer to the MCG.

The company is believed to have leased about 750 square metres of A-grade space at 543 Bridge Road, a new office co-developed by private investor and former Giorgio's restaurant owner George Saade.

Elite is believed to be paying about $320 a square metre, per annum, to occupy space within the five-level, 3500-square-metre building.

The company will be joining medical indemnity insurer Avant Mutual Group as tenants.

Avant leased about 1100 square metres of the building in February after selling its 165 Bouverie Street, Carlton, headquarters for more than $5 million last year.

Elite founder and former Collingwood Football Club player Craig Kelly said his company did not want to move far from Richmond, which was convenient to athletes whom Elite represents.

Mr Kelly said that the building's high energy rating also contributed to its decision to move there.

Colliers International's Rob Joyes and Gross Waddell's Jonathon McCormack are marketing agents for 543 Bridge Road.

Boutique views

THE ABN Group, a consortium of Perth-based developers that owns the Boutiques Homes brand in Melbourne, has paid about $3.6 million for a Docklands development site, with postcard Yarra River and CBD views.

The 3535-square-metre property at 81 Lorimer Street was offloaded by liquidators for the failed Dollarforce group, which paid $2.8 million for the property in 2003.

The site was sold with a permit to build a 23-storey office building, but the new owners are expected to build a more modest four-storey building, which may become Boutique Homes' headquarters, and offer redevelopment potential later.

The property, zoned business 3, abuts Mirvac's Yarra's Edge residential apartment precinct, on the Yarra River in Docklands, and any similar residential development would offer similar water and skyline views.

A Boutiques Homes representative was unavailable for comment when contacted by Capital Gain.

Lemon Baxter's Paul O'Sullivan and Chris Curtain marketed 81 Lorimer Street with DTZ's Richard O'Callaghan and Russell Hannan.

World-class design

THE Bendigo and Adelaide Bank headquarters in central Bendigo has been shortlisted for a World Architecture Award.

The 16,000-square-metre office, which accommodates almost 1000 banking staff, will vie with 12 shortlisted entrants globally in the office category award, presented in Barcelona in November.

Bendigo Bank chairman Robert Johanson said the building "caused a bit of a stir when it went up".

"But I think most people now accept it as being as important to the city as the town hall or the Shamrock," he said.

"And it's a great building to work in. It's light and spacious and provides for great staff interaction our people love it."

The bank wanted its new headquarters to reflect modern technology and design, while respecting its location in the middle of the city.