Three Carlton properties, for years owned by controversial union the Builders Laborers Federation, which the state government shut down 28 years ago, have been quietly sold to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
The assets – a single-storey shop at 11 Lygon Street, a double-storey shop called O’Reilly at 15 Lygon Street and a warehouse at 8-14 Orr Street, abut other Carlton properties owned and occupied by RMIT, whose 8.2 hectare city campus includes some 70 sites.
RMIT has just applied to refit one of the new buildings at 11 Lygon Street – for years the BLF headquarters – as a student social area.
For seven years until 2002, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union held the three Carlton buildings in trust while trying to convince the Victorian government that it was the ‘‘legitimate successor’’ to the BLF which was de-registered by the Cain administration in 1986 – and also, by another government, in 1974.
The BLF was de-registered for failing to meet minimum standards of responsible behaviour.
RMIT is believed to have paid the CFMEU about $7 million for the Carlton portfolio earlier this year – a rise on the $4 million at which it was valued 12 years ago. Selling agents Paul Farrelly and Michael Major of Sutherland Farrelly refused to comment about the deal.
In 2007, RMIT paid the Health Services Union $7.25 million for two buildings on Victoria Street and a development site in Cardigan Street, all in Carlton.
But, in recent years, the school has battled developers for former union space, in and around Trades Hall.
In 2012 developer Piccolo paid $5 million for the former Electrical Trades Union building at 516-520 Swanston Street, a site which has since made way for a 17-level apartment building.
This year, Abacus Property Group, Crema Corporation and Lechte Constructions announced plans for a 15-level tower to replace a Queensberry Street, Carlton, building formerly occupied by the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union.
Bit of Elwood history
The last piece of the former Elwood Tram and Bus line that connected St Kilda to Brighton between 1906 and 1959 is for sale.
The high-profile site at 448-464 St Kilda Street, at the border of Brighton and Elwood, and looking north up Ormond Esplanade, is identified by a service station which has been shut for three years.
Buildings of up to 11 metres are allowed on the remediated 2000-square-metre block which selling agent Andrew Egan of Biggin & Scott said should hold about 40 apartments. The land is expected to sell for about $4 million.
The original light rail carried passengers from what was once the St Kilda train station at the bottom of Albert Park Lake to the Elwood-Brighton border by Ormond and Glen Huntly roads and Mitford, Barkly and Grey streets. Soon after it was developed, the property known as the Head Street depot was destroyed by fire.
In 1959, citing the need for a costly upgrade, the government shut the electric tram line and replaced it with a bus service.
Most of the Elwood bus depot land around the service station was replaced with townhouses by a Brighton developer in the 1990s.
Studio living
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has refused to comment on speculation its soon-to-be-vacant Elsternwick studios could be offered for sale next year.
The 8000 square metres, compulsorily acquired in the 1950s from the Rippon Lea estate next door, is expected to sell for about $30 million, according to sources – a rise of about $5 million since BusinessDay last priced it five years ago.
Near the Elsternwick train station, it is likely to be the site of apartments capitalising on north-facing city views over Rippon Lea’s picturesque gardens.
Shows including Countdown, The Big Gig and The Late Show were filmed at the Gordon Street studio.
The former federal government recently built a $90 million studio at 102 Sturt Street, in Southbank, next door to an existing ABC office at 120 Southbank Boulevard.
By comparison private commercial networks Seven and Nine have recently sold their inner-Melbourne land holdings and become tenants.
One with the lot
A year after announcing fast-food restaurant Huxtaburger would occupy a ground-floor shop in its Trilogi apartment complex, in Prahran, developer Caydon has sold the leased building to an investor.
The $1.2 million sale took place on Wednesday night, before an auction scheduled for Friday.
Leased for eight years, the shop was sold on a yield of 5.6 per cent. CBRE’s Rorey James, Mark Wizel and Ed Wright said more than 120 enquiries were received for the asset at 205-207 High Street, near the Chapel Street intersection.
Last week the agency sold the former Maria George building, at 179-181 Flinders Lane, in the CBD, for $11.5 million reflecting a yield of 4.3 per cent.
Skinny skyscraper plan
The predominantly low-rise suburb of East Melbourne could make way for the city’s next skinny skyscraper with an ambitious application lodged for a site near the Bridge Road shopping strip.
A local developer plans to build a 13-level, 12-unit complex on the block, now occupied by a single-fronted shop at 10 Wellington Parade, near Hoddle Street corner which is also the Richmond suburb border.
The CBD is about a kilometre away and Wellington Parade is also the northern boundary of the MCG.
The East Melbourne proposal includes an underground car park and rooftop common area.
Elsewhere in the exclusive suburb this month, the Mercy Private Hospital has applied to develop airspace atop its Clarendon Street hospital, abutting the Fitzroy Gardens.
The hospital’s plans will block north views for some residents of the exclusive 150 Clarendon Street apartment tower often touted as Melbourne’s most elite abode.
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