Piccolo developments: Fitzroy owners cash in on $22m deal for Gore St former Australia Post site
Piccolo developments has snapped up the former Australia Post site in Gore St along with two neighbouring properties for a total $22m. Picture: Joel Carrett
Two Fitzroy landholders are laughing all the way to the bank after a developer snapped up their properties as part of a “rare” multimillion-dollar package deal.
Boutique developer Michael Piccolo said he was keen to make the most of his company’s acquisition of the former Australia Post distribution centre at 371-385 Gore St, which he recently bought for $14m.
He approached the owners of two neighbouring properties, a home fronting Argyle St and a warehouse owned by an investor for the past 20 years, and made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.
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The former Australia Post distribution centre at 371-385 Gore St, Fitzroy.
The manoeuvre paid off, with Piccolo developments dishing out a further $8m for the two sites and increasing its Australia Post landholding from 1192sq m to 2000sq m.
The total purchase value for the full trifecta was $22m.
Piccolo said it meant he could turn the site into a sought-after corner block ideal for high-rise development, and he hoped to build a new eight-level apartment complex with 50 luxury dwellings.
Two-bedroom apartments would be about $1.5m, three-bedroom apartments about $2.5m.
“The two properties were sort of on the market … they were being privately advertised,” Mr Piccolo said.
Upper House in Swanston St by Piccolo developments.
JLL executive director Josh Rutnam said competition was tough for the Australia Post site, with local and interstate buyers vying for the purchase with more than 200 inquiries and 31 offers placed during the expressions of interest campaign.
Piccolo’s luxury residential apartment block, Elwood House, at 2 Pine Ave, Elwood.
He said the site was “one of the rarest” development opportunities to hit the market in the area in the past two years.
Piccolo developments is behind other popular projects including the nearby sold out Fitzroy House at 71-75 Argyle St.
Elwood House, South Melbourne’s Piccolo House, Upper House in Swanston St, and Carlton’s Garden House are also among their other sites.
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