Lawyer Offloads Tower for Year’s First Collins Street Sale

It’s the first free-standing building to be sold on Melbourne’s Collins Street this year and it has gone for quite a sum.

The former Atlas Assurance building at 404-406 Collins Street has been sold to a private investor after a price tag of at least $30 million. 

It is a 12-storey office building with 3861sq m of net lettable area with significant recent refurbishments.

There were more than 150 enquiries, 30 inspections and 11 offers from investors locally, interstate and offshore.

The building has a weighted average lease expiry of 1.33 years by income and large range of tenants. 

The building was completed in 1958-1961 to a design by H Garnet Alsop. It is considered historically significant for its association with postwar development, and with the expansion of large companies undertaking construction and naming rights of new city office buildings as a form of promotion and fund investment.

It is also significant as a relatively intact, curtain-walled office building from the postwar period, demonstrating the style embraced by local architects by the late 1950s.

Cushman and Wakefield’s Daniel Wolman, Oliver Hay, Leon Ma and MMJ’s Joel Wald managed the sale.

“The asset was hotly contested as investors vied for a place in one of Melbourne’s premier business locations,” Wolman said.

“It defied market challenges with hundreds of enquiries and multiple offers, with the transaction standing as a testament to long-term investor confidence.

“Its price point also attracted investors seeking to capitalise on both the eminent location and value-add and repositioning opportunities.”

According to reports, the property was owned by lawyer Adrian Abrahams who bought it in 2016 for $23.1 million from Dorian Ribush, the owner ofAcupuncture Distributors Australia and New Zealand.

CoreLogic’s property records show that it was sold in 2006 for $14.6 million and in 2004 for $8.8 million.

Also on the street, Salter Brothers is planning a revamp of the Rialto.