In the same block, at 445 Little Collins Street, an investor pounced on the former Benito’s restaurant, paying $2.1 million the night before it was due to go to auction.

Cushman & Wakefield’s George Davies, Anthony Kirwan and Jeff Ha handled the deal. The neighbouring property, at 451 Little Collins Street, passed in at auction the next day and is for sale for $1 million.

Precinct 15

A 71,000 square metre development site in the Hobson Bay Precinct 15 urban renewal zone is up for grabs for $60 million.

The property, at 48 New Street, South Kingsville, is south of the Princes Freeway and comes with planning approval for 56 townhouses in stage one, plus an approved masterplan for 305 townhouses designed by ClarkeHopkinsClarke.

Records show the property was bought for $15.2 million in 2019 by a consortium with links to two Hong Kong-based companies. Ownership is now based in the British Virgin Islands.

The New Street land is next door to Mirvac’s The Fabric project, where construction is under way. The property group bought into the area in 2014.

Stockland also has a 6.3 hectare stake in Precinct 15, which is expected to have more than 3000 homes on completion, plus a mix of office and retail buildings and recreational land.

Colliers’ Hamish Burgess, Trent Hobart and Yvonne Zhou are handling the New Street listing.

Precinct 15, part of which previously housed Gilbertson’s Meatworks and a Toyota site, was rezoned from industrial to comprehensive development in 2018.

Across the freeway is the 50 ha joint-venture Bradmills project, which Frasers and Irongate bought for $220 million in 2021.

Avidan sheds site

Sydney developer Danny Avidan has sold a Fitzroy development site to locally based Romano Property Group.

The price for the 398 sq m property at 235 Napier Street, on the corner of St David Street, is understood to be about $5.5 million, or $13,944 a sq m. The deal was negotiated by Cushman & Wakefield’s Daniel Wolman, Oliver Hay, Alexander Leggo, Marcus Neill and Leon Ma.

Currently a 320 sq m single-level office, it came with a permit for a 14-unit, five-level project, which Romano boss Maurice Romano says he is planning to build. “I look at a lot of permits and they usually have a lot of warts on them, but this one had very generous-sized apartments and mostly northerly aspects,” he said.

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The property last sold at auction in 2021 for $4.56 million – $600,000 above its reserve.

The Napier Street price is a tidy premium on the amount paid in late December for the Bohemio Furniture warehouse at 159-161 Johnston Street, Fitzroy. It is understood to have sold for about $6 million, or $12,000 a sq m. Principals associated with Sydney developer Fortis have a caveat over that property, which had been held by the same family for more than 50 years.

Fortis might end up with control over the entire Napier Street corner, with associates of its building partner Cobild placing a caveat on a neighbouring property at 163-167 Johnston Street. That 1484 sq m site, on the corner of Napier Street, houses Forty Winks and McCoppins and reportedly sold for $18.5 million early in 2022.

No retirement

Rumours that real estate industry stalwart Valda Walsh has retired are “premature”. Walsh, the first woman to head up the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, has merely retired from the members council.

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Walsh, the principal of agency Walsh Cairnes, recently sold a garage and workshop at 727-729 Whitehorse Road, Mont Albert, for $2.46 million – 25 per cent over its reserve – to one of its neighbours.

Teska Carson’s Stephen Speck and Simon Walsh handled the auction of the 548 sq m site, which had been in the same family for about 45 years.

Walsh recently moved the real estate business to 18 Bills Street in East Hawthorn after decades at 1167 Burke Road, Kew.

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