Luxury hotel retail mall St Collins Lane and Novotel on the auction block
Lasalle Investment Management put Melbourne’s flash new shopping centre St Collins Lane and the five-star Novotel on Collins hotel next door, on the market.
The combined shopping and accommodation offering is expected to fetch about $400 million so the investors will need deep pockets.
Lasalle anticipates it will attract interest from local and offshore funds searching for quality assets in markets around the world.
The LaSalle Asian Opportunity Fund purchased the St Collins Lane, the adjoining 320-room Novotel and 154 stacked car spaces at 233-239 Collins Street for $192.95 million in 2011.
Since then, Lasalle's management team has refurbished the former Australia on Collins centre.
The place has been given a multimillion-dollar refit.
It’s also been given a new name and multiple international brands including lingerie specialists L'agent, fashion retailers Koopels, Zadig & Voltaire, Sandro and Maje, Folli Follie, REISS, Coach, TAG Heuer and Furla have been signed up.
The mall's interior has been reconnected from Collins through to Little Collins Street, creating what Lasalle Management hopes will be one seamless upmarket shopping experience.
JLL's Australia head of retail investments Simon Rooney has been appointed to manage the sale of both assets.
The retail offering is in the mall at the city's southern end.
Along with the Emporium and Melbourne Central, it has become Melbourne's largest retail hub with stores running north and south from Flinders Street Station to Melbourne Central.
Other shopping assets on the auction block include $900 million-plus Vicinity Centres portfolio, which includes Forest Hill Chase, a three-storey regional mall about 19 kilometres east of Melbourne. It alone is valued at $281 million. Vicinity is believed to be in due diligence with Blackstone and Mirvac lead contenders.
The news coincides with revelations that Sydney billionaire Lang Walker has withdrawn a $2.5 billion yet to be finished Collins Square complex in Melbourne’s Docklands off the market.
This was despite Walker Corporation getting several bids for the mixed-use office and retail project.
by Leon Gettler, April 26th 2016
