Gatto, Ferraro to share $11m proceeds of Butleigh Wootton sale
Two Melbourne identities including ex-CBRE agent, former AFL footballer Anthony Ferraro, and underworld figure, “professional mediator”, Mick Gatto, are set to share in the sale proceeds of a Kew property deal agreed to late this week.
Ferraro and Gatto are amongst the creditors attached to Butleigh Wootton, an ex-reception centre, at 867 Glenferrie Road, which was listed for sale by Westpac, the mortgagee in possession, in February.
The 1880s seven bedroom mansion on a 2836 square metre block with a 19-bay car park is speculated to be trading for more than $11 million to an as yet undisclosed purchaser following a campaign which targeted prestige residential buyers, foreign consulates, developers and childcare, medical and hospitality operators.
Prestigious schools which operate within the vicinity – including Xavier College, Trinity Grammar and Methodist Ladies College - were also expected to show interest in the eastern suburb property, marketed by Savills agents Clinton Baxter, Nick Peden and Jesse Radisich, who declined to comment on any part of their campaign.
Butleigh Wootton last traded publicly in January 2017 for $11.3 million, becoming a prestige home to Nick Lambros and Maria Liapis, who it was reported were working on an unsuccessful stem cell research project.
Lambros and Liapis obtained a $1 million loan for the property from CAG Company Pty Ltd, directed by Cheryl Anne Gatto. Bank Westpac – which appointed Savills – is also owed money by the pair.
This deal comes six months after a $13 million-plus agreement for the property failed to come to fruition. Another offer which valued this property at $14 million - and would have added a neighbouring address for a combined total of about $17.7 million - fell through in February.
Balaclava’s Nelsons Corner sells
A development site near the Balaclava train station in St Kilda East is selling for a speculated price of about $9.5 million.
The 2318 sq m holding, zoned General Residential and marketed to developers, covers the addresses known as 285-287 Inkerman Street and 3, 5, 7 and 7a Nelson Street, nearly six kilometres south-east of the CBD.
Branded throughout the campaign as Nelsons Corner, the property is understood to be trading to a local builder but this could not be confirmed with Knight Frank’s Stephen Kelly, Yvonne Zhou and Danny Clark, or Charter Keck Cramer, which acted as transaction adviser.
Less than 300 metres from the Carlisle Street retail strip, Nelsons Corner has 95 metres of road frontage.
In May, Moose Toys co-chief executive Paul Solomon paid $22.5 million for the suburb’s Beller House – also known as Carlisle Corner – at 281A-289 Carlisle Street – representing a near $4 million capital gain for the vendor who acquired it in 2015.
The 2720 sq m Beller House site, with a 45-year old, 3132 sq m mixed-use building and 44 car parks, is zoned Commercial 1, which also allows for a residential redevelopment.
Mr Solomon is the stepson of billionaire Moose Toys chairman Manny Stul, an active Melbourne property investor.
Old DiMattinas relisted
A Carlton property offloaded three years ago by the DiMattina family, of Melbourne football and hospitality fame, is for public sale. The 306-308 Lygon Street property is expected to sell for well over the $5 million it last sold for off-market.
The property is listed via Oliver Hay of Colliers International, and Frank Vinci, of Vinci Carbone, an agency which celebrated its ten year anniversary this week with a corporate restyle – its red banners now turning gold.
The DiMattina family is behind Il Gambero also in Lygon Street, Carlton, the Society restaurant on Bourke Street and the Blue Train Cafe in Southbank.
Abbotsford acre reoffered
One exact acre of land - 4047 sq m - on the banks of the Yarra River, in Abbotsford, is for sale again. The open air car park at 42-50 Flockhart Street is expected to sell for about $7 million and make way for a high density apartment complex or office. It is being marketed via agents Stuart Kennett, Paul Burns and Chris Kombi, of agency Fitzroys.
The property, about three kilometres east of the CBD, has been on and off the market for more than four years as an apartment development site.
Knoxfield industrial sites fetch $15.8m
Two separate industrial properties in Knoxfield, about 27 kilometres south east of the CBD, traded this week in deals totalling $15.8 million.
The largest asset, which comprises two warehouses across 22-24 Henderson Road, sold for $9.1 million, reflecting a yield of just over 8 per cent following a campaign by Cushman & Wakefield industrial director Andrew O’Connell with Colliers International’s Richard Wilkinson.
A second property – 13 Gilbert Park Drive – fetched $6.7 million, reflecting a yield of 6.71 per cent. Mr O’Connell marketed this property too, with colleague, senior executive, Robert Colaneri.
The latter property, offloaded by Doidge Property Group, has a weighted average lease expiry of more than five years – which is five times longer than Henderson Road – which sold to owner-occupier, Eclipse Commercial Seating.
End of an era in South Melbourne
One of Melbourne’s most unique retail portfolios is being sold down by its new owners, a syndicate including ex-Savills director Anthony “Pod” Wilson.
The block of 15 double-storey shops, known as Emerald Hill Terrace, and forming the east side of the Clarendon Street retail strip between Bank and Park streets, in South Melbourne, was for decades owned by the state government before being sold to Cannon family for $5.7 million in 1997.
Three years ago, Andrew Cannon – Australia’s honorary consul of Monaco - offloaded the holding, which was registered on one title, for $27.5 million to Mr Wilson’s PodCo, and Terraplex.
The syndicate has since subdivided the holding into 15 assets – one of which hit the market for sale this month (another two subdivided portion of Emerald Hill Terrace, at 338-340 Clarendon Street, and 342 Clarendon Street, traded for a total of $6.2 million three months ago).
CBRE’s Rorey James, Nic Hage and Mark Wizel with Dixon Kestle’s John Pratt and Simon Regan are the marketing agents.
The row of 1887 terraces, with upper levels occupied as apartments and offices, was saved from demolition more than 30 years ago by then-Liberal premier Dick Hamer.
“We took on the project as we recognised that South Melbourne had investment attributes that can’t be found anywhere else,” Mr Wilson told Capital Gain. “Direct access to the CBD, close proximity to tourist attractions and a development pipeline comprising over 1800 apartments, and 90,000 sq m of forecast office space make Clarendon Street one of Melbourne’s most progressive locations and a hotspot for retail activity”.
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