Goldfields swoops on $35m Jewish Care home

Busy developer Goldfields Group is close to putting its foot on a strategic Punt Road property in Melbourne owned by Jewish Care Victoria in a deal worth around $35 million.

Goldfields, which has a major commercial office under way in nearby South Yarra, is in due diligence to purchase Jewish Care’s old four-level aged care home on the corner of Punt Road and Raleigh Street in Windsor.

The aged care organisation moved to sell the property in late June despite intense disruption from the coronavirus pandemic.

Uncertainty from COVID-19 and Melbourne’s lockdown is squeezing activity in the commercial real estate market, but a surge of deals is expected towards the end of the year as suppressed buyer demand from easing restrictions meets a flood of listings.

Jewish Care has replaced its Punt Road facility with the nine-level Hannah and Daryl Cohen building to the south. Residents started to move into the new building in April.

The Punt Road site, which includes a large open air car park, was marketed by Colliers International with a price tag between $30 million and $40 million.

Neither Jewish Care or Goldfields would confirm price details due to confidentiality.

The transaction is Goldfields’ second purchase in just 11 months in the immediate locality. It struck an off-market deal last October – worth $19.1 million – for a single-storey building at 587-593 Church Street in Richmond, in one of the city’s hottest commercial property postcodes.

Read the article by Simon Johansen in The Sydney Morning Herald.