The Melbourne Theosophical Society has put its 124-130 Russell Street, east end CBD building, which it has held for 45 years, on the market with expectations of around $20 million.

Savills CBD & Metropolitan Sales Director, Nick Peden, who is marketing the property with Clinton Baxter and Benson Zhou, said the property, which MTS purchased for $180,000 in 1972, represented one of the best CBD purchase opportunities to hit the market in 2017.

“Opportunities like this simply do not come up very often. The fact that the building has been held for nearly 50 years is testament to that,” Mr Peden said.

He said while the property was fully leased to a number of tenants on short term agreements, it offered significant upside as it is with the current very low net rental representing massive growth potential.

“The property has extraordinary upside from a rental point of view alone without taking into consideration its many other attributes,” Mr Peden said.

Located directly opposite the brand new and hugely successful QT Hotel, the substantial five level retail and office building totals 2,591 square metres on a 519 square metre site with nearly 22 metres frontage to Russell Street and a second frontage to Melbourne Place of 21 metres.

Mr Baxter said one of the property’s key selling points was its potential value to a range of purchasers to occupy, redevelop, refurbish, subdivide, value-add or simply invest.

“The property will be attractive to a wide cross section of buyers from around Australia and internationally, particularly from Asia, not simply because of its exceptional east end CBD location and strong growth prospects, but also due to its potential to suit a number of different buyer options,” Mr Baxter said.

Mr Zhou said the underlying value of the East End site was another strong point.

“Property in the CBD’s coveted east end has exceptional value simply by virtue of its location and the benefits that flow from that location,” Mr Zhou said.

The transaction manager representing The Melbourne Theosophical Society is David O’Callaghan of O’Callaghan Commercial.