Historic Snows Department Store listed as hotel site
The Malaysian consortium which five years ago acquired Yooralla’s then-outgoing Melbourne CBD headquarters is selling after obtaining a permit to replace the airspace with a hotel.
Built in 1936 for Snows Department Store, 244-248 Flinders Street is expected to trade for more than $45m ex-GST.
The ownership group, Moremas Land, initially applied to raze the Art Deco structure so as to build a 13-level 215-suite guesthouse on the 846 square metre site.
It later amended the proposal to retain the 3381 sqm three storey structure but develop a 193 room facility with retail in a tower set back from it (artist’s impression, top).
The 2017 permit was recently extended and is active for three more years.
In July, Thailand’s Savetsomphob family paid Caydon c$108m for the new 206-key Vibe Hotel Melbourne at the nearby north west corner of Flinders and Queen streets (story continues below).
Site is one of Australia’s highest profile: agents
Adjacent to Federation Square, opposite Flinders Street Station and next to the Town Hall stop of the $11 billion Metro Tunnel project, 244-248 Flinders St is one of the country’s most exposed addresses.
“Flinders Street Station is already the busiest train station in the Melbourne CBD,” Colliers International’s Matthew Stagg, who is marketing the property with Daniel Wolman and Oliver Hay, said.
“When the Metro Tunnel is complete, this location…between Swanston Street and Elizabeth streets, will have the highest concentration of pedestrian foot traffic in the Melbourne CBD and potentially that of any capital city in Australia”.
Yooralla acquired the ex-Snows Department Store for $1.65m in 1995 before renovating it to occupy. It now rents 595 Collins St as its local base.
