70-year wait for Swanston Street building in Melbourne: CBRE

Melbourne CBD’s premier retail thoroughfare Swanston Street will offer the first test of the market for 2020, with a family offering for sale a building it has held for 70 years.

CBRE’s Melbourne City Sales team have been appointed to market 273 Swanston Street, which is set to go to auction on March 12.

It is next to the McDonald’s on the corner of Lonsdale Street and Swanston Street. 

In the Melbourne CBD’s booming northern precinct between Melbourne Central, Emporium Melbourne and QV Melbourne, the property is being offered to the market fully leased to an established hospitality operator.

“Swanston Street has long been regarded as Melbourne CBD’s most highly desirable and tightly held street of property ownership and this is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Alex Brierley said.

Over the past five years Swanston Street has been transformed from a retail strip to food and beverage destination catering to Melbourne CBD’s booming student population. 

Recent food and beverage leasing deals along Swanston Street have achieved rentals as high as $6,000 per square metre for smaller shops.

In a landmark deal, the former Jack London retail store at 301 Swanston Street was leased to popular chain David’s Hot Pot for approximately $400,000, for the 107 square metre ground floor space, negotiated by CBRE’s Zelman Ainsworth and Tan Thach.

“273 Swanston Street is well positioned to benefit from GPT’s new 10-level office tower that will sit atop Melbourne Central mall at 300 Lonsdale Street, which will drive rental growth well into the future,” Julian White added.

The last building to transact on Swanston Street was the 1930s-style, heritage 123 Swanston Street, which sold for just under $16 million, reflecting a 2.75 per cent yield, in 2015.