Heartbreaker Bar among multiple Russell St and Lonsdale St properties sold for more than $50m
The buildings at 157-173 Lonsdale St and 234 Russell St, Melbourne, have sold to an Australian property business.
Seven properties on a prominent Melbourne CBD corner, including a former hotel with a colourful history, have sold for more than $50m.
The freehold sites near the Russell St and Lonsdale St intersection known as “the Russell Corner” sold earlier this month following an international expressions of interest process.
Privately-owned Australian property business V-Leader snapped up the 1137sq m land parcel of 157-173 Lonsdale St and 234 Russell St, which was being sold by a private investor.
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The buildings have seven tenants, mostly hospitality businesses, including the Heartbreaker bar located in the former Continental hotel’s four-storey building.
Colliers’ Melbourne City sales national director, Oliver Hay, said the tenants’ short-term leases varied in length but some were for two years.
Mr Hay confirmed the site sold for more than $50m.
He said multiple offers to buy the Russell Corner were submitted, with offshore interest predominantly coming from buyers based in Singapore, China and the US.
157-173 Lonsdale St and 234 Russell St, Melbourne, sit on 1137sq m.
The Heartbreaker bar.
Mr Hay said there was strong demand for prime land parcels in Melbourne’s CBD.
“There’s a large amount of capital from investors and developers wanting to take advantage of the limited supply of land in the CBD,” Mr Hay said
“Demand has flooded in from local, interstate and offshore groups and created a competitive atmosphere among buyers seeking quality land parcels, with considerable opportunity waiting to be unlocked.”
The buildings are mostly occupied by hospitality tenants.
V-Leader’s managing director, Andy Zhang said, said acquiring the Russell Corner would allow his company to expand its Melbourne CBD profile.
“We’ve spent a considerable amount of time analysing the various options and given the sites
proximity to an abundance of amenity, the location instils an opportunity for a variety of uses,” Mr Zhang said.
“We’re considering a mixed-use project with the exact outcome to be solidified over the coming months.”
The existing site stands at four storeys tall. Planning permission would be required to develop it further.
Inside the city offering.
The Russell Corner sale joins several other high-profile Melbourne CBD deals Colliers has completed this year including the $43m sale of 422 Little Collins St and the former Swinburne University campus at 226 Flinders Lane for $37m.
They also sold 170 Queen St for $29.58m and 175 Flinders Lane for $25.2m.
The Continental hotel, previously named the Cross Keys, was frequently mentioned in the law and order columns of Melbourne newspapers in the 1850s-1860s.
In 1851, two men were charged with robbing the pub.
The properties are in the heart of Melbourne.
The buildings have triple frontage within Chinatown.
One of the men was caught running away by a Detective, who found the offender carrying several pairs of boots and slippers, a silver watch and more than £3.
A man was charged with stealing a chimney ornament from the hotel in 1867.
The next year, the hotel’s landlady Mary Couzens was charged with “allowing profligate and disorderly persons to assemble in her licensed house” and fined £20.
Ms Couzens was again fined “for harbouring women of bad character in her hotel” in February 1868.
She was fined once more in August for allowing prostitutes to assemble at the hotel.
Ms Couzens and her husband also faced magistrates a number of times for arguing and throwing crockery and furniture at each other.
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