Melbourne Club miss out on adjoining Collins Street Paris End buildings
Two adjoining Little Collins Street properties sold for $22.35 million in a heated auction which saw a number of well known interested parties battle it out for the prime commercial space.
The Melbourne Club, the private social club established in the 1830s who are located across the road, were an unbidder, as was Andrew Cannon, the honorary consul to Monaco.
The buyer was Rob Phillpot, co-founder of tech business Aconex, who bought the two separate properties at 37 Little Collins Street (below) and 39-41 Little Collins Street (above).
He paid $16.5 million for the bigger 39-41 Collins Street which is currently tenanted by Italian restaurant Lupino.
It was sold by the Mathews family.
There were 91 bids for the three level building which drove the price to more than double the vendors reserve price. It sold on a yield of 1.16%.
Next door, a two storey building currently tenanted by Mathew McConnell’s Bar Lourinha drew 66 bids with Phillpot paying $5,850,000.
Colliers International’s Melbourne City Sales team of Oliver Hay, Daniel Wolman, Chris Ling and David Sia handled the auction campaign.
Hay said the interest generated was unparalleled, resulting in more than 250 enquiries, 49 inspections and 52 contracts distributed.
The interest was primarily driven by investors and future owner-occupiers desperate to secure an asset in the tightly held ‘Paris End’.
“With the favourable economic conditions, we are seeing countless active buyers and under-bidders from such campaigns eager to secure commercial assets that come to the market, particularly properties with rental upside and value-add opportunities within the Melbourne CBD grid,” Hay said.
Late last year Phillpot bought the two penthouses atop The Gatwick Hotel, the heritage-listed building in St Kilda renovated on The Block.