Lucas paid $12.11 million on No.19-29 and a further $5.79 million for a building at its rear on Windsor Place. Around the corner, Sydney hospo tsar Justin Hemmes spent $17.5 million on the San Telmo steakhouse at 12-18 Meyers Place.

In 2015, Macs Hotel Investments paid $9.8 million for No.59-63 – home of the Spaghetti Tree and Madame Brussels – and the O’Brien Group paid $11.4 million for the Imperial Hotel on the corner of Spring Street.

While the O’Brien Group doesn’t own the former Job’s Warehouse building at No.58, records show Michael O’Brien paid $7.5 million for 11-19 Liverpool Street, which is at its rear.

Maria George

Jackalope’s Louis Li quickly offloaded the Maria George building at 179-181 Flinders Lane, just weeks after listing the five-level Edwardian building.

The buyer is understood to be Lucas, who is still ironing out some of the conditions regarding the purchase. The Lucas Group declined to comment.

Last year Lucas bought the neighbour at No.175 from Li, paying $23.5 million for the building which houses his Kisume restaurant.

Li had planned a Jackalope hotel for the CBD combining this building and its neighbour at 175 Flinders Lane. Long-sitting tenants, notably luxury boutique Christine’s, were ejected from the building but nothing came of the plan.

Li was after $15 million for the Maria George building and a discounted $30 million for trophy asset, the Prince of Wales hotel in St Kilda. He had paid $45 million for the Prince of Wales in 2015 and $11.4 million for Maria George in 2017.

Cushman & Wakefield agents Oliver Hay, Daniel Wolman and Leon Ma handled the deal but declined to make any comment. Other sources were chattier.

Hungry dreams

Developer Landream is offloading one of its earliest CBD purchases, a department store building once owned by the unions, opposite Melbourne Central.

Landream paid $36 million for 260-274 La Trobe Street in 2014 and flagged plans for an 83-level skyscraper on the 1518-square-metre site Elizabeth Street corner.

It’s not the first time the six-level building has hosted broken dreams.

In 1970, a year after former prime minister Bob Hawke became president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, a new building with offices and a department store was constructed on the site in a bid to provide union members with cheap goods.

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The ACTU owned 51 per cent of the venture, which never flourished. It closed in 1981 and the ACTU sold the building and moved its offices to Swanston Street.

But with the forest of apartment towers in the west end and Melbourne Central across the street, the busy education precinct is pumping with foot traffic.

Hungry Jack’s signed a 15-year lease on a 500-square-metre space in 2018 after its Swanston Street digs up the road were closed for the Metro Melbourne project. Scape’s new building on that site is just getting under way.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Hay, Wolman and Ma are handling inquiries and expecting between $60 and $65 million for the property.

Hay said the building’s lease terms provided “flexible pathways to vacant possession. This allows investors to strategise their next move, whether it’s releasing to high-profile tenants or embarking on a major redevelopment project.”

West Melbourne

Developer PDG has snapped up a West Melbourne development site at 137-157 Adderley Street, paying $9.25 million.

It’s a good deal for PDG. The 1597-square-metre site comes with a permit for a six-storey, 96-unit project in an area that is now zoned for only four levels.

Records show the vendor, the private Chinese Aust Landing Group paid $9.4 million for the site in 2016 when the market for development sites was nearing its peak and West Melbourne was hot property.

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It will be a relatively small development for PDG, coming after major projects such as Boyd Village in South Melbourne, CSL’s new office space in Parkville and a build-to-rent joint venture with Mirvac at the Queen Victoria Market.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Ma, Hay, Marcus Neill and Jeff Ha did the deal.

Equitable shops

Four shops at the foot of the Ibis Budget Hotel on Elizabeth Street are on the market as part of a deceased estate.

Two of the shops, Betty’s Burgers and Zambrero, are on Elizabeth Street, while the remaining two – Decennium Australia and Madamimadam – face Equitable Place at the rear.

The busy lane runs from Collins Street through to Little Bourke Street.

The shops rake in a substantial income of $797,043.29 and should fetch about $15 million in total.

Back in 2001, the Hansen family’s Kymarnam bought the Hotel London and shops for $5.5 million. The hotel was sold in 2004 to TPIG Melbourne Pty Ltd for $3 million and the hotel redeveloped.

The 146-room hotel last changed hands in 2021 for $23.75 million, with Well Smart Holdings selling to Sydney hotelier Eduard Litver.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Anthony Kirwan, George Davies, Ma and Ha are handling expressions of interest. PWRE’s Peter Weatherby is the transaction manager, representing the owner, Kymarnam.

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