Jreissati family makes $50m windfall with Port Melbourne warehouse investment sale
262 Lorrimer St, Port Melbourne, sold for $81.6m in a suburb record.
One of Melbourne’s wealthiest families has turned a seven-year Port Melbourne warehouse investment into a $50m windfall.
A sale for 262 Lorimer St settled late last week for a jaw dropping $81.6m, setting a suburb record and snaring one of Melbourne’s priciest commercial real estate deals this year.
Records show the site was bought for $31m by the well-heeled Jreissati family in 2014.
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Bensons Property Group founder Elias Jreissati set another record for the suburb when he sold his double-storey penthouse in the HM@S building for $16m in 2019 — topping the then record by $9m.
Elias and wife Colleen are also selling a lavish Eureka tower penthouse with a $25m asking price, while their daughter Samantha has a half-floor apartment in the complex for sale at $8.8m.
The level 82 penthouse for sale in Southbank’s Eureka tower.
The lavish sky mansion is priced at $25m.
Samantha is also listed as the managing director of Levantine Hill winery, and the family is also known for its philanthropy — including establishing the Jreissati Family Pancreatic Centre at the Epworth Hospital.
A spokesman for the family said they had sold the Lorimer St property reluctantly, but that selling for a “3.6 per cent yield was too good to refuse”.
They added that the family understood property well, and were sellers for the Eureka properties “at the right price”.
The Lorimer St property the family has just sold is tenanted by Rathbone Wine Group, which owns famous labels including Yering Station, Xanadu and Mount Langhi Ghiran.
Dawkins Ochiutto Commercial Real Estate director Chris Jones said the $81.6m deal was the biggest price paid this year.
The penthouse at 191/85 Rouse St, Port Melbourne, took several years to smash the suburb’s residential price record with a $16m sale.
The double-storey home has remarkable views across Port Phillip Bay.
“For a single asset, it is one of the biggest in Melbourne this year … I’d say it’s the biggest industrial sale this year,” Mr Jones said.
CoreLogic records show Port Melbourne’s previous high-water mark was set at $72.245m by a 5.97ha property at 520 Graham St in January last year.
Mr Jones said the purchase was the first in Melbourne by the Europe-based fund, and a healthy sign the world believed the city’s economy would recover from the pandemic.
“There’s a lot of capital chasing that logistics sector,” he said.
Suburban and city warehouses offering “last mile” logistics were particularly high on buyers’ radars thanks to heightened use of e-commerce during the pandemic.
But the location near Melbourne’s busy ports is also understood to have appealed to the buyers.
The $8.8m half-floor apartment at 7301/7 Riverside Quay, Southbank.
It offers some of Melbourne’s best views.
Rathbone Wine Group supply a range of Melbourne restaurants and bottle shops, and will remain tenants at the 1.69ha property for another 13 years.
The off-market sale took about three months to conclude, with nine prospective buyers competing from across South East Asia and Australia.
Four of them had made offers near the $80m mark.
A deal was signed last Thursday.
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