Mark Rowsthorn sells Savoy Tavern site on Spencer Street, Melbourne
The BRW Rich-lister Mark Rowsthorn had sold one of Melbourne’s best-known CBD sites, the old Savoy Tavern on the Bourke and Spencer Street corner.
It has been bought by the Fragrance Group, a Singapore-listed hotel and residential developer controlled by the property tycoon Koh Wee Meng who has been busy acquiring Australian sites.
The 1800-square-metre site was bought for $44.5 million.
It last traded in 2005 at $9.9 million, when bought from the Republic of Nauru who had approval for a 47-storey office tower.
The single-storey 1970s-era brown brick-veneer pub which on opening sold more beer than any other in the state long stood derelict for almost two decades until Mark Rowsthorn re-opened the pub in March this year.
The then Melbourne eyesore was described by the Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle as “a scab on the knee of the city.”
It is one of the first views of Melbourne that arrivals at Southern Cross station are greeted with.
“Subject to obtaining all regulatory approvals, the group intends to redevelop the property into a high-rise mixed-use development,” Fragrance Group told the Australian Financial Review after its off-market sale by Colliers agent Matt Stagg.
Last week Fragrance secured 555 Collins Street from the developer Harry Stamoulis for $78 million.
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