The 19 owners of a 1940s apartment complex on St Kilda Road have banded together to put their major land holding to market.
While the trend has been gaining traction out in the suburbs, it's a first for the CBD fringe precinct. The rectangular 1804-square-metre site at 596 St Kilda Road is flanked by major apartment towers and is tipped to sell for about $20 million to a residential developer.
The vendors of the strata-titled properties are represented by CBRE agents Josh Rutman, Mark Wizel and Kiran Pillai, along with Gross Waddell's Raoul Salter and Michelle Hui.
"After receiving numerous approaches over the past six months, the owners decided to take advantage of the strong market conditions," Mr Rutman said.
"This is one of the last genuine opportunities to acquire development land on the St Kilda Road boulevard," he said. "Given its proximity to Albert Park, the site has the potential to benefit from protected parkland, lake and boulevard views."
St Kilda Road is undergoing a major transformation back to its residential origins after a long spell as a fringe office market. In the 1960s, new skyscrapers emerged where graceful mansions had once reigned.
Twenty years ago the 81-metre BP House was converted to residential use and renamed the Domain but the trend has really only just started to gather momentum.
Malaysian developer UEM Sunrise recently paid $58 million for the former Victoria Police headquarters and is still considering whether to convert the 21-storey tower, or demolish and rebuild.
In June, the heritage-listed Charsfield House at 478 St Kilda Road was sold to residential Chinese developer the Ever Bright Group and the Schwartz-family backed Qualitas Group and LAS Group paid $80 million for the Fawkner Centre, which it is planning to convert to a $300 million apartment complex. The Illoura Plaza at No. 424 is also expected to become a residential project.
Mr Pillai said: "While the precinct will always have relevance in the market as a stand-alone office market, we expect to see continued withdrawal of secondary office assets and underdeveloped sites such as 596 St Kilda Road for high rise residential use."
However, it is not possible to build high-rise everywhere on the boulevard. West Australian Lester Group has put 324 St Kilda Road on the market through Colliers International.
Once the site of a proposed $250 million tower development by the Overland Group, a new future for the building was stymied by its closeness to the Shrine.
In a bid to prevent overshadowing Melbourne's war memorial, planning controls limit maximum heights and setbacks.
Despite its five vacant floors – triggered by the departure of Target to new digs in Geelong – the nine-level building is expected to fetch about $30 million.
Crescent Wealth recently paid $30.75 million for an office building at 10-16 Dorcas Street, off St Kilda Road. The group cited its confidence that office space in the precinct would maintain its premium with so many existing towers converting to residential.
