STYLISH two-level art deco building at 2-4 Claremont Street in South Yarra will go under the hammer next month.
It comprises 12 strata office units set around a central courtyard and is expected to fetch more than $6 million.
Zoned Business 1, the building is being marketed by
Robert Kelly and Sandro Peluso of GormanKelly, with Scott Orchard and
Andrew Dawkins of CB Richard Ellis. The building will be auctioned on
July 15 at noon, on the site.
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Robin Grow, president of the Art Deco & Modernism
Society, said he hoped the building would be retained, rather than have
yet another stylish building in the area destroyed.
The building started life as two mirror-image blocks of flats, probably in the late 1930s.
''It's a classic streamlined styling common in South Yarra, St Kilda and Elwood in the '30s,'' Mr Grow said.
Features included brick with decorative speedlines at the
roof line, metal-framed windows, curved facade, a small lip above the
windows, and central access.
''Both blocks feature nautical-styled portholes at the street,'' Mr Grow said.
The blocks were converted to offices in the 1980s.
''The architect was possibly Stuart Hall, who designed many similar
blocks in South Yarra and the inner suburbs,'' he said.
The building area is about 638 square metres and the land 908 sq m.
The property will be sold subject to several short-term
leases, and has a potential fully leased income of about $200,000 a
year.
Mr Kelly said the property was a blue-chip, city-fringe
location in one of Melbourne's best mixed-use corporate, entertainment
and fashion precincts, with trains, trams, shops, cafes and parks at the
door.
Appeared on brisbanetimes.com.au - 23rd June, 2010