Capital Gain
A $155 million deal to buy billionaire Harry Stamoulis’ Woolworths distribution centre and state office in Mulgrave, next door to VFL Park, has stalled at the final hurdle.
ASX-listed Elanor Investors Group, in a joint venture with global finance behemoth PGIM Real Estate, was due to settle during the week on the property at 522-550 Wellington Road.
The 68,144 square metre building is on a huge 19-hectare site which Elanor and PGIM were planning to redevelop into a 113,000 sq m last-mile logistics centre.
However, sources have told Capital Gain the deal has failed to proceed partly because Woolworths decided to exercise an option to stay on, thus putting the kibosh on redevelopment plans. The retailer has 10 five-year options up its sleeve.
It’s not that PGIM Real Estate, the property arm of US-based Prudential Financial, doesn’t have very deep pockets. Last month it paid about $165.6 million for a 20.7-hectare site, earmarked for a data centre, at 1 Oroya Drive, Truganina.
A PGIM spokesperson declined to “comment on the status of the deal” but clarified the firm “had not pulled out of the joint venture”.
Elanor, on the other hand, does not have deep pockets. The company has struggled since the deal was originally done in 2023 and has not traded on the stock exchange since August 2024. Shareholders recently voted to approve a $125 million debt restructure with Singapore’s Rockworth Capital Partners, and it only got around to filing last year’s accounts in March.
A $57 million loss was an improvement on 2024’s $157.8 million in losses.
Elanor’s spokesperson said the company does not comment on private transactions unless there are “material developments to update the market”.
“There is no matter that would currently require disclosure,” the spokesperson said.
Stamoulis Property Group did not return calls. Stamoulis paid $90.75 million for the site in 2017.
All the rage
Stamoulis’ site was originally listed as a super-site along with its neighbour at 508-520 Wellington Road, a smaller 4.1-hectare property owned by Dug Pomeroy’s Pomeroy Pacific Group.
However, records show Pomeroy’s property traded in early 2025 to Leo Cantwell’s Westernport Capital Properties for $34.75 million.
Cantwell is cashed up after selling 265 Westernport Highway, Dandenong South to ISPT back in 2022 for $330 million.
ISPT, now merged with IFM Investors, has just announced a $1.1 billion industrial park for that 62.42-hectare site.
They’re all the rage. On Wednesday, ESR and Frasers Property Industrial launched a $900 million industrial estate down the road at 635 Hall Road, Cranbourne South on 64.4 hectares of land they bought from Salta in 2024.
Up for grabs
Pelham Court, the original site of the Royal Children’s Hospital in Carlton, is up for grabs.
The 6004 sq m city-fringe office is on the corner of Rathdowne Street, at 15-31 Pelham Street facing the Carlton Gardens.
Records show it last changed hands in 2016 for $37.05 million when Tony Foti’s Forestfield Corporation bought it from Forza Capital.
It is 65 per cent leased to seven tenants, most of them in the medical research sector, including Breast Screen Victoria, Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer and Defence Science Institute. Fully leased, it could return about $2.77 million a year.
The heritage-listed building, which is on a 3812 sq m site, was redeveloped as office space in the 1980s.
The original hospital moved to the site in 1876, shifting from Exhibition Street. When the RCH moved to Parkville in 1961, it became the St Nicholas Hospital for disabled children.
Current office values in Carlton put the price at around $5500 a sq m which would translate into a $30 million deal.
Late last year, the University of Melbourne paid $17.8 million for 33 Lincoln Square South in Carlton, and Hawthorn private school Preshil paid $19.7 million for the old piano factory next door.
While Pelham Court is not quite so close to the university, its parkside location is in a busy city-fringe precinct.
Gorman Commercial’s Peter Bremner and Jonathon McCormack and Savills’ Jamus Campbell and Nick Peden have the listing.
A three-storey building on Swanston Street, leased by the University of Melbourne audiology department, is back on the market with expectations of about $17 million.
While the uni has a lease until 2028, the building is offered vacant and pitched as a development play.
The low-rise property is surrounded by 13-storey hotel and student accommodation towers.
Records show the vendor, W.H. Lober, paid $3.62 million for the building in 2001.
Savills agents Tim Grant, Linc Reynolds, Tom O’Halloran and Benson Zhou have the listing. The 1840 sq m office is on a 1315 sq m site, zoned mixed-use, near the university and RMIT.
Shops and servo
Petrol station developer Jasbe is selling a 3012 sq m development site in Malvern that includes a BP servo.
The blue-chip site at 1367-1383 High Street and 189-191 Tooronga Road includes a string of shops on the corner and two houses.
Records show Jasbe acquired the site over a 28-year period. The property is expected to fetch around $16 million.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Hamish Burgess, Daniel Wolman, Oliver Hay and Leon Ma have the listing.
Closer to town, the team is selling a block of 12 flats at 65 Tivoli Road in South Yarra, close to Toorak Road and Chapel Street.
Records show they last changed hands in 2011 for $3.85 million. Expectations are around $5 million.
Built in 1970, the three-storey building is on a 620 sq m parcel of land zoned Neighbourhood Residential. It returns about $234,520 a year in rent.
“We’re seeing strong demand from private high-net-worth investors, family offices and syndicators who are looking for assets that provide both stable returns and strategic optionality. The ability to control an entire building in a location like this is a key driver,” Burgess said.
Meat & Wine
The Meat & Wine Co restaurant in Camberwell Junction has finally sold for $4.11 million after a few trips to market in the past 18 months.
The sale of the restaurant at 482 Riversdale Road, on the corner of Camberwell Road, represented a juicy 5.8 per cent yield.
The heritage-listed former English, Scottish and Australian Bank last changed hands in 2018 when it was bought by a Singaporean investor paying $4.75 million.
Fitzroys agent Chris James, who got the deal over the line with Ben Liu, said: “The yield is pretty strong in this market – particularly for a strata-titled asset – anything under 6 per cent is notable.”
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