Give peace a chance and buy a non-conforming church for $20m

Capital gain

It’s a sign of the times. The historically non-conforming Melbourne Unitarian Church is selling its Peace Memorial Church in East Melbourne, and is looking at a windfall of between $18 million and $20 million.

The distinctive 1960s-era church – which has a steep pitched roof resembling a pyramid – was designed by Erik & Grethe Kolle and apparently has no heritage protection.

It is on a large 1584-square-metre site at 110-118 Grey Street, next door to the Epworth Hospital and opposite St Vincent’s Private. The Fitzroy Gardens is at one end of the street and Powlett Reserve at the other.

Stonebridge Property Group’s Julian White, Max Warren, Dylan Kilner and Chao Zhang are running the expressions of interest campaign.

The Unitarian Church is one of Melbourne’s oldest religious organisations. It established its first church in 1852 – but not without controversy. There have been critics who claimed the Unitarians were barely a church at all.

The church did not respond to a request for comment about its future destination or size of its congregation. However, it’s most recent annual report recorded a loss of $139,490, mainly due to the loss of car-parking income. A looming expensive liability relating to Gotch Lane at the church’s rear was also noted in the report.

On the CBD fringe, East Melbourne is home to several religious organisations. Last year, the Catholic archdiocese sold some of its extensive landholdings. The Grollo Group paid $10.54 million for 384-388 Albert Street, a mansion previously housing the Bionics Institute.

Take a punt

Opposite the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the former Apostolic Church at 231-233 Punt Road also has quite a history. The latest episode has its mortgagee putting the high-profile office on the market.

Engineering group Bonacci – now Meinhardt Bonacci – turned it into an office late in the 20th century before selling it in 2006 for $1.9 million.

Records indicate it was bought by David Brandi, who, 15 years later, was sentenced to jail for two years for defrauding the Australian Tax Office. Records show it is now owned by Tina Brandi. It could fetch about $4.5 million.

Brandi, an investor in sporting clubs and competitions, later bought four Block properties for a total of $7.25 million and made a $1.14 million profit.

Newpoint Advisory has control of the company, which owns the two-level 850 square-metre building. It’s on a 713 sq m piece of land passed by more than 59,000 cars a day. Records indicate Sydney financier Pallas has mortgages over the property.

CBRE agents Nathan Mufale, Scott Hawthorne and Alex Brierley are running the sales campaign. It’s not the only property they have on the books that is Brandi-owned but under Newpoint’s control.

Three shops on trendy Greville Street in Prahran are also on the market. The first is a vacant two-storey 118 sq m shop and dwelling at No.119. The others, at 121-123 cover 300 sq m and have restaurant and cafe fittings. They’re empty too.

Late last year, another Brandi-owned building, at 677 Victoria Street, Abbotsford, where accountancy and financial services Brandi & Co continues to operate, sold for $2.8 million. Although Brandi is no longer involved, the name lives on.

Pace pays $40m

Property developer Pace is understood to have paid about $40 million for Windsor Hall, the former Presentation College in Windsor.

Pace, which has more than 100 residential projects under its belt, will develop staged housing on the 1.89 hectare landholding at 187 Dandenong Road.

It’s the second big development acquisition in two weeks with residential developers enthused by the Allan government’s new activity centre plans.

And it’s a good buy for Pace. The Presentation Sisters, which has owned the site for more than 150 years, was originally looking for a $50 million windfall to pump into its mission.

Pace had recorded strong sales at its developments in Flemington and Fitzroy, Pace boss Shane Wilkinson said.

Colliers’ Jozef Dickinson, John Marasco and Philip Heberling negotiated the sale, with Neil Matthews acting as transaction manager.

The campaign attracted strong interest from a wide range of potential buyers, including residential developers, private schools and aged care developers.

Interest in St Kilda development sites is at a peak, according to the listing websites, but that might be because of the revalued price points.

At the smaller end of the market, down the road from the Sisters’ former school, is 1168 sq m of razed land at 12-14 Duke Street.

Records show the Fried and Gyopar families took a punt on the property in 2018, paying $9.08 million, including the block next door.

The remainder is being sold with a permit for 18 apartments and it’s likely worth around $5 million.

Stonebridge Property Group’s Andrew Milligan, Lucas Duffy and Chao Zhang are selling the land under instruction from Mark Wizel’s Advise Transact.

Family charity

The new Preston headquarters of family charity Berry Street is up for sale, carrying a price tag of more than $24 million.

The three-storey building at 266 Raglan Street is squeezed into the fast-growing wedge between High Street and Plenty Road dominated by high-rise residential developments.

While the first two floors are leased to Berry Street, co-working group IWG has the top level.

The 3155 sq m building returns about $2 million a year and was completed in 2024. Records show the land changed hands in 2017 for $5.02 million and is now owned by the Frater Group.

It comes with a Nabers Energy Rating of 5.5 stars and includes a 99kW solar system, 10 EV charging stations, end-of-trip facilities and bike storage.

Gorman Commercial agents Peter Bremner and Jonathon McCormack and Cushman & Wakefield’s Oliver Hay, Daniel Wolman and Leon Ma are selling the new office, which is a rare breed in the inner north.

Berry Street relocated from a riverside office in Eaglemont in 2024 after its lease expired. That building, at 677 The Boulevard, was bought by biomedical group AXXIN in 2021 for $16.6 million.

Services Australia

The Bronts family’s Castlerock group is selling a portfolio of Services Australia offices worth about $65 million.

The biggest and most valuable of the bunch is the Brunswick office at 172-186 Moreland Road, which has a nine-year lease term and returns $2.09 million a year in rent. It is expected to fetch about $10 million.

The portfolio, which includes offices in Boronia, Warragul, Glenorchy in Tasmania and Port Pirie in South Australia, returns a total $3.89 million a year with a relatively short average lease term of 5.6 years remaining.

The SA buildings provide essential face-to-face services for Centrelink and Medicare clients. JLL’s Mark Stafford, Piper Dedrick, Simon Quinn and MingXuan Li have the listing.

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