Schots Home Emporium to sell iconic Hoddle St store
It’s the building everyone knows in Melbourne’s inner north, and now furniture and homewares outlet Schots Home Emporium is selling up its long-time Hoddle St home.
The store’s 2137sqm Clifton Hill site, which has been home to the business for more than 25 years, occupies a significant stretch of Hoddle St, where people travel from far and wide for its eclectic wares.
But with Schots having opened newer stores at Moorabbin in Melbourne’s south, as well as in Geelong, Colliers International agent Peter Bremner says the time was right for them to sell.
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Despite the almost certain developer interest that is expected for the property, which spans two levels and 5306sqm of floor area, Bremner says the building’s famous 115-year-old facade is likely to remain.
Schot’s Emporium’s Clifton Hill site.
“There’s no heritage protection on the building, but there is an overlay. Ultimately you wouldn’t be able to pull the building down, there’s no way known,” he says.
“Most people who’d be looking at the building would be owner-occupiers looking to buy it and move in, and there could be some developers who want to gut the inside of it and build a new building within the skin of the facade.”
“They could build possibly up to six to eight levels.”
The site is less than 3km from Melbourne’s CBD.
“I don’t think people need to fear the building will be demolished. I think it’s highly unlikely it will be.”
The price tag on the property is expected to be upwards of $20 millions, and it’s the first time in a quarter of a century that it will be sold.
The property at 380-406 Hoddle St was built in 1913 as a shoe and boot factory, with many of the original features remaining more than 115 years later.
Inside the two-level showroom at Schot’s Emporium.
Schots has a lease on the Commercial 2-zoned building until March next year, generating a short-term holding income of $800,000 per annum, and with two additional one-month options.
It is being sold through expressions of interest, which close on August 7.
