The five-storey 410 Lonsdale St building has hit the market with a $7m guide, putting it in the same price range as a luxury suburban mansion. Picture: Colliers
A five-storey Melbourne CBD building earning almost $8000 a week is up for grabs for the same price as a suburban mansion.
The 410 Lonsdale St freehold, in Melbourne’s legal precinct, has a $7m guide, five tenants and more than $413,000 in annual passing income.
The property last changed hands in June 2023 for $6.854m, at a reported net passing yield of 2.8 per cent.
The latest guide puts the entire city building in the same price conversation as a prestige family home in some of Melbourne’s most expensive suburbs.
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But instead of a luxury residence, buyers would get about 978sq m of office and retail space across five levels on a 208sq m site, with frontages to Lonsdale St and Finlay Alley.
The building is moments from Melbourne Central Station, Town Hall Station, Bourke St Mall, Hardware Lane and the city’s court precinct.
Colliers investment services manager Christian Hatzis said the holding income, flexible floorplates and CBD location would appeal to a broad buyer pool.
“With strong holding income, flexible floorplates and genuine upside, this is an opportunity that will appeal to private investors, syndicators and long-term holders seeking exposure to a premium CBD location with proven demand,” Mr Hatzis said.
Colliers is pitching the property as one of only a handful of Melbourne CBD freeholds expected to be offered to the market in 2026.
The building, once known as ASEA House, survived a major 1934 fire before becoming part of Melbourne’s post-war industrial story. Picture: supplied
The asset is being marketed with potential upside through leasing, repositioning or a strata selldown.
Colliers investment services director Alex Browne said agents were seeing renewed confidence in well-located CBD assets with strong fundamentals and repositioning potential.
“The legal precinct remains one of the city’s most tightly held markets, with low vacancy, strong tenant demand and ongoing infrastructure investment supporting long-term value,” Mr Browne said.
But the building’s backstory gives it another layer beyond the financials.
The interwar survivor was built in 1923 for hardware merchant J S Kidd, which commissioned prominent Melbourne architects H W & F B Tompkins to design a five-storey warehouse on the site.
The 410 Lonsdale St freehold is being pitched with five tenants, five levels and a $7m guide in Melbourne’s legal precinct. Picture: Colliers
The firm was also behind major Myer buildings on Bourke and Lonsdale streets, giving the Lonsdale St freehold a link to one of Melbourne’s best-known retail dynasties.
The building’s early life took a dramatic turn in October 1934, when a major fire tore through the warehouse and caused an estimated £20,000 damage.
J S Kidd relocated to Carlton the following year, before the Lonsdale St building was sold to Richard R Thomas, chairman of electrical engineering and machinery merchant R & C Thomas.
The company held the sole Australian distribution rights for Swedish electrical company ASEA, and by 1938 the property had been renamed ASEA House.
The five-storey building later became a hub for heavy electrical equipment, including transformers and three-phase motors supplied to government and municipal customers.
The Melbourne CBD building has survived fire, changing tenants and more than a century of city transformation. Picture: Colliers
Its post-war life was captured by industrial photographer Wolfgang Sievers, whose 1958 Lonsdale St image showed the facade bearing the ASEA House signage.
The building is now protected under Melbourne’s Heritage Overlay, with its five-storey scale, upper facade, steel-framed windows, projecting pilasters, parapet and heavy dentilled cornice among the key heritage elements.
The property is being offered for sale via expressions of interest through Colliers agents Christian Hatzis, Alex Browne and Matt Stagg, closing June 18.
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