Bourke St Mall icon sells after 60-plus years

A Bourke Street Mall building has fetched well above $40 million in its first sale in more than 60 years.

Colliers International agent Oliver Hay said the gold rush-era property — which is leased by crystal merchants Swarovski and shoe shop Windsor Smith — was snapped up by a private family based in Southeast Asia.

It sold amid fierce competition from local and offshore investors.

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This resulted in a sale that “well exceeded” the $40 million asking price, Hay says.

The property attracted interest from offshore and local buyers.

Vendor Elbaum Holdings paid just $402,000 for the three-storey 1859 building at No. 274-278 in 1955.

Hay says he and Colliers colleagues Matthew Stagg, Daniel Wolman and David Sia received more than 200 inquires about the “high-profile asset” after it hit the market in April, generating “multiple bids”.

Swarovski occupies the building …

He says it is one of just 13 freehold Bourke Street Mall sites, and the last one to change hands before this sold nearly a decade ago.

“They don’t come up very often,” he says.

“This will be an intergenerational asset.”

Swarovski and Windsor Smith have leases until October 2021.

… along with shoe retailer Windsor Smith.

Stagg told the Herald Sun in April that the property could then be re-leased long term or updated, with its capital city 1 zoning potentially allowing the development of the upper floors and air rights to be explored.

He says Colliers has sold more six Bourke St properties worth more than $300 million combined in the past year, before this latest deal.

This article from the Herald Sun originally appeared as “Bourke Street Mall icon sold to offshore buyer for eye-watering figure”.