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A property developer has reopened the British Crown Hotel, now Bar Nero, in Collingwood not for hospitality but to sell the site, reflecting the suburb's ongoing commercial and residential transformation with rising land values and new institutional leases.
The property developer and publisher, whose Hungarian forebears ran taverns, has reopened the British Crown Hotel – now renamed Bar Nero – at the southern end of Smith Street in Collingwood.
But the move, which involved renovating the rear beer garden and polishing the concrete floors, is aimed at selling the pub, not running it. He bought the pub at 14-18 Smith Street in 2019 paying $5.65 million, with plans to raze the hotel and build a 10-storey office designed by Denton Corker Marshall. The south end of Smith Street, long dominated by McDonald’s on the corner of Victoria Street, is undergoing a mini-renaissance.
Cult Greek restaurant the Pontian Club is at one end and Brazilian restaurant Prosa at the other. Old commercial space is giving way to residential. Construction is well under way on Milieu’s new project on Derby Street. Records show Milieu paid $8.05 million for the 603 square metre site, which comprised the old Jesuit Social Services building at 1 Langridge Street and its neighbour at 8 Derby Street.
That’s $13,349 a sq m. Carpe is also building further down Derby Street, having paid $10.6 million, or around $12,000 a sq m for 53-57 Cambridge Street in 2024. If those land values hold, Schwartz’s pub could be worth more $6.6 million. Still in Collingwood, independent arts college Australian College of the Arts is about to expand, taking new space near its existing Cromwell Street campus.
The college has signed a 10-year lease on 1240 sq m at 92 Rupert Street and a further 760 sq m at 73 Cromwell Street, paying $690,000 a year in rent for the adjoining buildings. The college is also taking out extra space at 110 Cromwell Street, across the street, where its existing Animation, Screen, Media and Performing Arts programs are run. The college has a large footprint in Collingwood and Fitzroy, as well as space in Waterloo in Sydney.
Gray Johnson agent Brett Simpson negotiated the deal.
“Collingwood has evolved significantly over the 30 years I’ve been in the industry and it’s now a major hub for business, education, arts and culture,” Simpson said. The two-storey building at 18-20 Punch Lane faces a quiet courtyard, just around the corner from the Shark Fin Inn on Little Bourke Street. It’s in a top east end spot, near several hotels, office towers and theatres.
Records show Landream Australia paid $1.8 million for the building in 2012 – one of the smaller purchases it made during a big spending spree. The developer dreamed very big with plans for several CBD skyscrapers. But in the end, it made more money selling major sites from Collins to Franklin Street to North American developers such as Hines and Brookfield.
The Halim Group’s lease includes a landlord termination clause which opens the way for an owner-occupier to move in to the 263 sq m space. Rent is currently just $46,870 a year, about a third of current market rents. The much missed continental supermarket chain was established by Leo and Rose Blake in 1971 but after Leo’s death, the family suddenly closed its three supermarkets in Kew, Heidelberg and Glen Iris and sold the freeholds.
Other development sites adjoining the supermarkets – in Heidelberg, Mont Albert and Glen Iris – were part of the property portfolio. The latest to hit the market is 1130-1144 Toorak Road, a 2203 sq m parcel of land, on the corner of Summerhill Road, which is next door Leo’s old Glen Iris supermarket. Coles paid $30 million for it last year and has already turned into its biggest Coles Local.
The Toorak Road-fronting land is potentially worth up to $15 million. The portfolio has so far yielded around $100 million, although Orchard Piper and James Packer’s NPACT are yet to settle on the Kew site. Mario Lo Giudice’s Banco Group paid $20 million for 133 Burgundy Street, Heidelberg and negotiations are under way for two further sites in Mont Albert and Heidelberg. Petrol station investor and developer Konfir Kabo is offloading his flagship Woollert property in the outer northern suburbs.
Built in 2011, the Ampol at 250 Epping Road, was the first of 50 servos Kabo built over the past 15 years. It’s on 3083 sq m of land and has been leased to Ampol Australia Petroleum since 2015. Ampol has exercised one of its five-year options, taking the current lease out to 2030. It returns a total $516,737 a year in rent with a drive-through Smokin’ Joe’s Pizza & Grill also on site.
MAKER Property’s George Davies, Raphael Favas and Anthony Kirwan along with their former colleagues at Cushman & Wakefield, Oliver Hay, Daniel Wolman and Leon Ma, are handling the transaction and expect more than $7.5 million. Appel Property’s Ben Appel acting as transaction manager. Kabo, a prominent collector of Indonesian art, is diversifying his investments and pumping his money into a new art museum in Ballarat.
Servo deals are chugging along, despite the rapid switch to electric vehicles, but those with shorter leases, older infrastructure and no battery chargers are not commanding the highest prices. Recent deals include the sale of the Pearl service station at 1B Bell Street, opposite the Bunnings Preston warehouse. The tenant bought the 2727 sq m property after it passed in at auction, paying $3.507 million. Records show the vendor paid $4.2 million in 2017.
CBRE agent Raoul Holderhead, who negotiated the deal with Jing Jun Heng, Scott Hawthorne and Nathan Mufale, said a couple of parties made pre-auction offers. And at 950 Bridge Inn Road, Doreen, a United Petroleum and two fast-food outlets with only two years on its lease, fetched $6.9 million and a 6.5 per cent yield.
Collingwood Property Development Bar Nero Real Estate Investment Australian College Of The Arts
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