Choice of properties as commercial auctioneers get busy

Philip Hopkins February 13, 2012

INVESTORS have a variety of properties to choose from as auctions get under way this year. Fitzroys will auction two sites - a Prahran retail outlet leased to a Thai massage business, and a two-level retail/office/residential building at 509 Spencer Street, West Melbourne.

Both go to auction on Friday, February 24: the Thai outlet at 188 Chapel Street at 1pm on site, and the Spencer Street building at 3pm on site.

The Prahran business has annual rental of $68,378, with annual 4 per cent increases. The Spencer Street building is offered with vacant possession, with planning approval for a multi-unit development of four one-bedroom apartments and a ground floor retail/office space.

In South Melbourne, 23 Palmerston Crescent will be auctioned at 1pm on March 1 through Lemon Baxter. The two-storey concrete office building with a first-floor balcony was completed in June 1987 and refurbished in 2000.

The building will be offered with a one-year lease to Hickory Construction, which starts from July 1 at an annual rent of $80,000 net.

Investors will need at least $1.5 million when a boutique investment in Hawksburn Village comes up for grabs on March 7. The property at 588 Malvern Road, Hawksburn, is being auctioned by Gross Waddell at 1pm on site.

It is leased to Studio MG, which has been a tenant for more than nine years at an annual rental of $85,000. The single-storey, brick Victorian terrace has a building area of 100 square metres and a rear courtyard of 45 square metres.

The lease expires in August 2014.