Capital Gain
The former owners of St Kilda’s famed Espy Hotel are trying their luck again in Fitzroy, splashing $6.55 million on an empty pub in Brunswick Street.
The Sand Hill Road group, owned by five mates who launched a pub empire in their 20s, has in a twist of fate, bought the historic multi-level pub at 125-129 Brunswick Street from the same vendor it purchased the Esplanade Hotel from back in 2017.
Fronted by brothers Andy and Matt Mullins, Sand Hill Road made a motzah selling the freehold of the Espy in 2022 for $64 million. And that was after the group pocketed $100 million when they handed over the Espy’s leasehold and a clutch of other pub businesses to Australian Venue Co in 2020.
The brothers and their friends got into the pub game, leasing their first venue, Fitzroy’s Commercial Club Hotel, more than two decades ago.
They have since ploughed a truckload of cash into transforming the only pub they ended up holding on to after the Australian Venue Co and Espy deal: the Waterside Workers Hotel on Flinders Street. Now they’re looking for a new challenge.
Records show a Sand Hill Road-owned company settled on the 1649-square-metre Fitzroy pub in late August for $6.55 million. Built in 1849, before the gold rush, the vacant pub is at the south end of Brunswick Street, opposite the Atherton Gardens housing estate.
It had most recently been occupied by Ichi Ni Nana, a restaurant developed by the Adamo and Sofo families after they sold the Espy to Sand Hill Road, and it last changed hands in 2012 for $4.84 million.
It’s on a large 662-sq-metre site and has a coveted 3am liquor licence for 478 patrons. Stonebridge’s Nic Hage, Rorey James and Ian Lam got the deal over the line after the pub passed in at auction in April on a vendor bid of $6.5 million.
Up in arms
Southside, the Celtic Club is offloading the Limerick Arms in South Melbourne which it bought for $5.3 million in 2021.
But rather than establishing its historic operations at 364-368 Clarendon Street, the Celtic Club camped out in North Melbourne before signing a five-year lease on the Sarah Sands on the corner of Brunswick and Sydney roads.
The club had long owned its own three-storey hotel on the corner of Latrobe and Queen streets but sold to developer Beulah (since collapsed) in 2016 for $25.6 million with expectations it would re-occupy the pub.
A stoush over lift access put paid to that and the Celts moved off in a huff. While that transaction was preceded and followed by a stream of public bickering, it now looks like a sweet deal done at the top of the market.
Colliers agents Christian Hatzis and Ryan Milivojac have the listing and are expecting around $4.5 million.
The 715-square-metre three-storey hotel is on a 347-square-metre parcel of land. It returns $254,430 a year in rent on a lease with three years left to run and a 10-year option.
The Glen
Listed investment bank MA Financial is splashing out $327.5 million on the Perron Group’s half-stake in The Glen shopping centre.
The deal raises co-owner Vicinity’s current valuation of the 76,471-square-metre shopping centre to $655 million. It was sitting on the books at $635 million in December last year.
It’s a welcome return of confidence in the Melbourne market where $2.8 billion in shopping centre transactions were completed or contracted in the past financial year.
The Glen, in the south-eastern suburbs, occupies a massive 7.2-hectare site on the corner of Springvale and High Street roads.
It’s anchored by David Jones and three supermarkets and is part of a thriving strip retail, hotel and entertainment precinct. CBRE’s Simon Rooney did the deal.
Another shopping centre set for a new owner is Greensborough Plaza in the north-eastern suburbs where David Di Pilla’s HMC Capital is reportedly undertaking due diligence.
That $330 million centre is the last piece of a $3 billion 10-centre portfolio which Blackstone has been selling down over the past few years.
Auction highlights
It’s no secret Capital Gain loves an auction, especially a CBD auction and there are three coming up next month.
A restaurant in Chinatown, built in 1907, at 209-211 Russell Street will go under the hammer on October 8.
The two-storey building is a couple of doors from the Exford Hotel, on the corner of Little Bourke Street, and leased to Minh Xuoung Restaurant until February 2029, with two five-year options.
The restaurant pays around $227,136 a year.
Vinci Carbone agents Frank Vinci and Zach Molinaro have the listing and are expecting in the mid-to-high $4 million range.
A week later, an historic two-level bluestone and sandstone building on the edge of the Queen Victoria Market precinct also goes under the hammer.
Built in 1860 as a house, it later became a local branch of the Bank of New South Wales and was a prominent Indian restaurant in the 20th century, attracting cricketers and other visiting celebrities.
The 340-square-metre building is one of the last standing freestanding freeholds in the area which is now dominated by multistorey towers.
Four major projects worth more than $3 billion are going up around the market and a fifth is on the cards after Shesh Ghale listed his 3915-square-metre development site at 388 William Street (for around $90 million.)
MAKER Property’s Anthony Kirwan, George Davies and Raphael Favas are expecting more than $3.5 million. It last changed hands in 2017 for $2.325 million.
Highlander hopeful
A new owner will hopefully emerge at a “realisation auction” on October 14 for a 352-square-metre development site at 490 Flinders Street, on the corner of Highlander Lane.
Last for sale in 2024 for a hopeful $12 million, its current quote is around $5.5 million. The vendors paid a total of $10.21 million in 2021 for the property. Ouch!
Colliers’ Matt Stagg, Christian Hatzis, and Philip Heberling have the listing.
The site includes five three-storey townhouses at Highlander Mews, one of the city’s first modern-era residential projects and an old restaurant next door at 490 Flinders Street.
The vendor is the developer Flinders Highlander, a joint venture between Metier3 architect Andrew Norbury and a Singaporean entity which launched a marketing campaign for a 24-storey 35 unit tower in 2023.
Car dealers
The property underpinning one of the best performing Mazda dealerships in the country is for sale with a price tag of around $9 million.
The Frankston Mazda dealership at 52 Wells Road, Seaford is on the market for the first time in nearly 40 years but it actually changed hands more recently.
The dealership, which traded as Graham Powell Mazda for more than 50 years, was sold in 2019 to Penfold Motors and the freehold fetched $4.15 million.
The business is now operated by ASX-listed Peter Warren Automotive. The 2275-square-metre dealership is on a 6442-square-metre land parcel which is leased for 10 years and returns $501,500 a year in rent.
Fitzroys agents Chris James, Chris Kombi and Ben Liu are running the expressions of interest campaign.
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