Ultra Football was represented by Ross Ritoli from RMR Leasing.

Residential and office towers are going up all over the former industrial area, which is a brisk walk from Collingwood railway station and Smith and Victoria streets.

On a much smaller scale, a new US-themed sports bar is opening nearby at 272 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, in the old Kodiak Club nightclub.

Fitzroys agent Lewis Waddell negotiated the three-plus-five-year lease for the triple-storey 300-square-metre terrace.

The new operator, more recently involved with CBD pub The Coopers Inn, will open a takeaway and coffee outlet in coming weeks while refurbishing the venue.

Victoria Vine

The office-retail space at the foot of Gurner’s Victoria Vine project is looking for tenants ahead of its projected completion later in the year.

JLL Office Leasing and Ainsworth Property (AP) – a new venture by ex-CBRE retail agent Zelman Ainsworth – are handling enquiries for the 3000-square-metre space.

Mr Ainsworth said the space can be split into multiple tenancies and discussions have already opened with a range of potential users, including cycling groups, coffee roasters, offices and retail showrooms.

“The space has industrial features including large floor-to-ceiling heights and open spaces on large floor plates,” he said.

JLL agent Josh Tebb said there has been strong interest from the corporate office market.

The project, covering nine buildings, is designed by Cox Architects and inspired by the New York meatpacking area. It’s on the corner of Victoria and Vine streets.

Up the road, the Society for Hospital Pharmacists sold three of its four office suites at 65 Oxford Street, Collingwood, to a local owner-occupier for $3.65 million.

And Teska Carson’s Matthew Feld and Luke Bisset are selling a Collingwood warehouse at 73 Islington Street, which has been held in the one family for more than 100 years.

The 734-square-metre warehouse – which was built more recently – goes to auction on April 22.

Westpac branch

Private investors who paid $1.18 million for a Westpac branch in Hawthorn in the mid-1990s have just sold it for $11.5 million, despite Westpac declining to renew the lease.

The 820square-metre building is on a 750-square-metre corner parcel of land in the heart of the Hawthorn shopping strip at 655-657 Glenferrie Road.

Emmetts Real Estate agents Charles Emmett, Andrew Milligan and Geoff Emmett fielded 300 enquiries and 10 bids for the double-storey shop, which sold by expressions of interest this week.

A local investor-developer is understood to have bought the property.

“The current trend of bank branch downsizing, which has intensified during the pandemic, is unlocking very valuable retail real estate,” Charles Emmett said.

“Many older bank branches occupy dominant positions on the retail strips on sizeable landholdings and are very attractive to other retail tenants, developers and investors”.

Joint venture

Armed with a newly minted permit, joint venture partners AUSFinance and Alpha 14 are heading straight to the market with their South Melbourne development site.

The 2365-square-metre site at 11-41 Buckhurst Street is zoned Capital City 1 and covers seven properties. It is expected to fetch more than $20 million.

A permit was issued in February for a mixed-use project designed by Hayball Architects that includes 5350 square metres of office space and 145 apartments.

Colliers International agents Andrew Ryan, Hamish Burgess and Jozef Dickinson are handling expressions of interest, which close on April 28.

The joint venture has yielded good results on other projects. Last year, they sold an 11-storey Collingwood office building to RF CorVal for $75.5 million while it was under construction.

The South Melbourne end of the Fishman’s Bend precinct is full of activity. US build-to-rent giant Greystar recently paid $65 million for Chip Eng Seng’s 15-85 Gladstone Street site and Larry Kestleman recently put a caveat on the Budget site at 293-297 City Road.

And at 313-317 Kings Way, a three-storey, 15-unit apartment building on a 297-square-metre island site is for sale.

Savills agent Jesse Radisich – who is marketing the property with Benson Zhou, Nick Peden and Mark Stafford – is anticipating up to $5 million for the property, which was once an office building.

It’s surrounded by construction – Holder East’s Oasis apartments, Milbex’s Park Avenue and Crema Group’s The Eighth on Palmerston Avenue.

Aged care

Developer and aged-care operator BlueCross has sold a vacant aged-care facility in Ivanhoe for $8.63 million

The centre, closed recently by BlueCross, is high on the hill at 405-413 Upper Heidelberg Road near the Austin and Mercy hospitals. It was licensed for 51 beds.

BlueCross has opened a new larger facility nearby on Waterdale Road.

Buildings cover 1942 square metre of the large 5345-square-metre site, which has views out to the west.

A private international investor snapped up the site with close competition from medical groups. The sale price reflected a rate per bed of over $157,000.

CBRE agents Marcello Caspani-Muto, Jimmy Tat, David Minty, Nathan Mufale and Sandro Peluso ran the expressions of interest campaign, which closed just before Christmas and yielded 12 offers from aged-care operators, residential developers and medical groups.

Mr Tat said government standards meant aged-care properties are often very well maintained, which meant there was significant value remaining.

The centre will probably be leased to a supported accommodation group for a period before redevelopment in the long term.

“The rise in demand for disability accommodation has proven a good long-term use for these properties,” he said.