Phileo Australia is speculated to be banking more than $30 million from selling a major retail asset it recently extended in Kangaroo Flat, eight kilometres south-west of Bendigo.
The Rocklea Homemaker Centre at 239-249 High Street - a site occupied before it was razed by a fire in 2001 by Rocklea Spinning Mills - has a lettable area of 18,351 square metres leased to a dozen bulky goods tenants.
Phileo valued the asset, with 630 car parks, at $27.5 million last   August, shortly after expanding the complex by 5700 square metres. Rocklea now has the potential to earn annual rent of $2.7 million. 
Last month, Planning Minister Richard Wynne approved the Black Forest North Precinct Plan, paving the way for Phileo to develop a series of housing estates on a 360-hectare site it owns in Melbourne's Wyndham area.
In 2009 Phileo snared the 303 Collins Street office building for $56 million, a steep discount on the $75 million vendor Macquarie Direct Property Fund appraised the asset for months earlier. That CBD building's estimated value is $100 million now.
Previously known as Renak Holdings and directed by former Malaysian solicitor Rudy Koh, the majority shareholder, Phileo also controls the 108-room Ramada Encore hotel in Dandenong and a major development site in Box Hill.
In 1997, the company paid $18.8 million for the former South Melbourne tram depot on Kingsway to convert into an office park. It also replaced General Motors Holden's former Dandenong manufacturing plant as an industrial estate.
CBRE's Mark Wizel, Rorey James and Chris Parry, marketers of the Rocklea Homemaker Centre, said no sale deal had yet concluded.
Eatery gets bite
Malaysian restaurant chain Pappa Rich may soon dish its last nasi goreng at 534-540 Doncaster Road, with the prime Doncaster eatery site understood to be selling for a speculated $18 million.
The 6232-square-metre block opposite the former Eastern Golf Course, which Mirvac is replacing with a $1 billion-plus village, is also a short walk to the Westfield Doncaster shopping centre, a major local public transport hub.
The site was offered with a 15-year lease to Pappa Rich, which pays annual rent of just over $265,000.
However, the rental agreement allows for an early termination clause should the owner wish to demolish the building. The sales campaign targeted developers.
Under the Manningham City Council planning scheme, the land is within the Doncaster Hill precinct, which encourages high density development. At present the Pappa Rich site includes just a 634-square-metre improvement and 113 car parks.
Knight Frank's Ken Smirk and Tim Grant with GormanKelly's David Minton and Robert Kelly marketed 534-540 Doncaster Road for private investors.
Switch for Novion
Sydney-based Novion has decided against a major expansion of the Keilor Shopping Centre, in Melbourne's north-west, instead selling down a strategic portion of adjoining land.
The prominent 1.9-hectare block known as 7b Copernicus Way, but with a long frontage to Sunshine Avenue, near a Calder Freeway exit, is understood to be selling for nearly $2 million, but this could not be confirmed with Savills selling agents Julian Heatherich and Pat De Maria.
Keilor Shopping Centre, in Keilor Downs, about 17 kilometres from the CBD, includes 65 retail outlets, including an Aldi, Coles and K-Mart, and nearly 1300 car parks.
Last year it was reported the ACCC may force Novion and another listed shopping centre trust, Federation Centres, to divest retail assets in order for a proposed $11 billion merger to be approved.
People not cars
An Asia-based developer is believed to be paying Places Victoria $15 million for a former car dealership with major high-density redevelopment potential in inner west Footscray.
The former Binks Ford dealership at 34 Cowper Street was acquired by the government planning authority for $11 million in   April 2012, a month after a rezoning allowed for the block to make way for a major mixed-use project.
In 2013, Places Victoria was unsuccessfully negotiating with a joint venture partner to develop a $100 million mixed-use project on the 0.9 hectare parcel.
Savills Julian Heatherich and Nick Peden were the marketing agents this time around.
NML in St Kilda
National Mutual Life Nominees is paying $90 million for a prominent office building at the bottom of St Kilda Road.
The 19-level tower, for years known as Cadbury-Schweppes House, was offloaded by Blackstone, which acquired it for $51.3 million as part of a $300 million portfolio purchase from GE Capital in 2013.
Colliers International's Nick Rathgeber, Trent Hobart and Leigh Melbourne sold the property on an approximate 7 per cent yield. Developed in 1974, the 17,049-square-metre tower occupies a 4533-square-metre corner block near the St Kilda Junction.
Resale in CBD
Local and interstate private investors, who nearly three years ago paid $7.15 million for a five-storey brick mixed-use building in the Melbourne CBD are speculated to be onselling it for more than $9 million.
Pacific House, a historic, vacant structure at 268-270 Lonsdale Street, offers 498 square metres of lettable area and sits on a 183-square-metre parcel. Late last year, a permit to part demolish and alter the building was approved.
Mulcahy & Co's Chris Mulcahy and Julian Mero with CBRE's Mark Wizel and Josh Rutman marketed Pacific House, opposite the new Emporium shopping centre and next to Melbourne Central.
Waterfront sale
Indian billionaire Rakesh Wadhawan will likely record a loss, after costs, from selling one of three prime Melbourne sites he bought during a three-month, $57 million spending spree in the 2008 downturn.
The waterfront parcel on 950 square metres at 312 Beaconsifeld Parade in Middle Park has sold for $11.81 million, a slight rise on the $11.48 million Wadhawan's development arm, DEC Group, paid in 2009.
DEC purchased and offered the site with a permit for a five-level, 34-unit apartment complex. At the time of purchase, it was speculated Wadhawan would occupy a penthouse of the proposed complex as his Melbourne base.
The largest site DEC purchased in Southbank was last year leased to the Planetshakers church, instead of developed, as planned. The developer, who until recently sponsored Victoria's Bushrangers cricket team, did however build flats on a third South Yarra site.
Greg Hocking Holdsworth's Greg Hocking and Warwick Gardiner marketed 312 Beaconsfield Parade.
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