The Midtown Melbourne building at 246 Bourke St, Melbourne, has transacted for $154m.
A Melbourne CBD tower has sold to a Sydney-based property group for an eye-watering $154m.
The nine-level building on the corner of Bourke and Swanston streets is known as Midtown Melbourne.
The deal been hailed as the largest transaction in the Victorian capital’s city centre since December 2024 when the David Jones flagship building, also on Bourke St, changed hands for $223.5m.
RELATED: Wobbies World: Lost Melbourne theme park that vanished forever
Mernda super site hits market with plans for $94m townhouse development
AFL to vacate Docklands for huge $3bn Marvel Stadium redevelopment
The Midtown Melbourne site has a colourful history including its former heyday as a hotel frequented by notorious gangster Squizzy Taylor, in the 1920s.
Today, the property comprises a total 15,233sq m of shop and office space that’s home to retailers such as Telstra, HSBC, Chemist Warehouse, Daiso and W Cosmetics.
Japanese homeware, clothing and lifestyle brand MUJI is set to replace Telstra with a three-level flagship store, in 2027.
Midtown Melbourne was sold by IFM Investors, which is owned by a collective of pension funds, to the Sydney-based Coombes Property Group.
The transaction marked the group’s first major investment in Victoria.
Midtown Melbourne has frontages to Bourke St, Swanston Stand Little Bourke St.
Melbourne gangster Squizzy Taylor frequented the hotel, the Orient, which used to stand at the Midtown Melbourne site. Picture: Public Record Office Victoria.
Commercial real estate agency Cushman & Wakefield received 125 buyers inquiries and 13 offers seeking to purchase the site during the marketing campaign.
The agency’s Oliver Hay, Trent Weir, Leon Ma and Daniel Wolman had the listing.
“We saw strong engagement from high-net-worth investors and private capital groups looking for irreplaceable CBD retail assets with secure income, proven foot traffic and the ability to benefit from Melbourne’s continued retail recovery,” Mr Hay said.
The $154m sale price equated to more than $10,000 per square metre for the Midtown Melbourne property.
The Bourke St building sits on a 2787sq m site but has a total 15,233sq m of shop and office space across its nine levels.
W Cosmetics is one of the site’s tenants. Picture: Instagram@midtownmelbourne.
Historically, the former Orient Hotel was established at the Bourke St address in the 1850s.
The pub later became a popular hangout for Melbourne’s most famous criminals, including Squizzy Taylor, in the 1920s.
According to the Walking Tours of Melbourne website, “a criminal record guaranteed you entry” to the hotel.
A newspaper article from the era recounted how, in 1924, Detective Sergeant Fred Piggott attended the licensed premises to confront Squizzy about a Hampton bank robbery in which a bank teller was shot, and later died from his injuries.
Demochi Donuts is one of the food outlets at Midtown Melbourne. Picture: Instagram@midtownmelbourne.
The story recounted that Squizzy threatened to turn his “Colt” (automatic pistol) on the police officer, who in turn told the hotel’s manager that criminals should not be allowed to use the bar for “hatching confidence stunts and thieving”.
One of Squizzy’s associates followed Pigott back onto Bourke St and warned him that the underworld boss was “a nasty man to fall out with”.
The crime drama franchise Underbelly’s sixth series told the story of Squizzy’s rise to become one of Melbourne’s most feared criminals of his time.
Titled Underbelly: Squizzy, it aired in 2013 and starred Jared Daperis as Squizzy.
Midtown Melbourne sits at the entry to the Bourke St Mall. Picture: Instagram@midtownmelbourne.
Following the Orient Hotel’s closure at the Bourke St site, the Foy & Gibson department store opened in 1936.
The shop was known for its rooftop fun park including a playground, petting zoo and ferris wheel, before its doors closed in 1967.
MA Financial assisted Coombes Property Group during its acquisition, announced on Thursday, and will provide ongoing asset and property management services.
MA Financial’s head of core real estate, Chris Lock, said that Midtown Melbourne presented an opportunity to capitalise on the ongoing recovery and regeneration of Melbourne’s CBD and the Bourke St Mall precinct.
Sign up to the Herald Sun Weekly Real Estate Update. Click here to get the latest Victorian property market news delivered direct to your inbox.
MORE: El Jannah unveils Aussie expansion plan after $1bn partnership
Guzman y Gomez dumps failed US expansion for 1000-store Australian push
Adrian Portelli reveals how drink sales at one store rival 752 7-Elevens