School snares ex-Qantas office
A North Melbourne corner office built in 1984 for Qantas and extensively renovated 13 years ago has sold to River Nile School.
The educator, which offers the VCE, VM and VPC to refugee and asylum seekers, is paying $7.82 million for 182 Capel Street, at the north west intersection of Courtney.
It will relocate from rented accommodation at 117 Capel St.
The acquisition comes a year since River Nile School sold its ex-headquarters – a small 180 sqm brick building at 13-15 Cobden St, North Melbourne – which it outgrew some years ago.
That result – $2.321m – demonstrated a modest profit on the $2.05m it outlaid three and a half years earlier.
Next chapter for ex-Qantas office
Cushman & Wakefield’s George Davies, Jeff Ha, Daniel Wolman and Anthony Kirwan marketed the Capel St office for the owners of FMSA Architecture, which occupied long term.
The vendors were also responsible for the last major refurbishment which saw the building achieve a 5-star NABERs rating.
Over three levels, it contains 1200 square metres of A-grade space, rated 9B, allowing education use, all of which is vacant (story continues below).
This component was until recently leased to Melbourne Health.
A ground floor tenancy returns annual rent of $190,500 ex-GST from the Australian National College which is on a lease expiring in 2026 with a five year option.
Also with 12 basement car parks, the site spreads 656 sqm, zoned Mixed Use, allowing for, amongst other things, residential, retail and hospitality, amongst other things.
An extension – up to about seven floors, or 24 metres, could be considered, the agents added.
Part of Melbourne’s Biomedical precinct, the address is some 450 metres from the proposed Parkville station, part of the multi-billion Metro Tunnel project, which will connect North Melbourne to South Yarra.
The deal comes just over a year since the pair behind Southern Cross Education outlaid $2.85m for a King St, West Melbourne, building to occupy.
That purchase came about after Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools snapped up a former Southern Cross office in the suburb, 52-58 Chetwynd St, to expand Simonds College.
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