Investor snaps up Phamish restaurant premises on St Kilda Esplanade for $2.6 million

A Melbourne-based private investor has paid $2.6 million to acquire the premises of St Kilda food and wine bar Phamish, which sits below one of the bayside suburb’s most striking boutique apartment buildings.

The 370-square-metre St Kilda restaurant is on the ground floor of luxury apartment block 30 The Esplanade, with its curving glass facade reflecting Luna Park and the Palais Theatre live music venue across the road.

The sale price reflects a yield of 6.39% based on a net annual rental of $166,308. The square metre sale rate was $7,027.

The "quick" sale of the restaurant premises was negotiated by Savills agents Nick Peden and Clinton Baxter subject to the space being leased to Phamish restaurant on a 10-year term with five-year renewal options.

Phamish has leased the space since the building’s completion in December 2009.

“This was really prime property. A restaurant with a long-term lease, within a prestigious new residential development which was itself within arguably Melbourne’s most popular dining and entertainment precinct. It was no surprise that a purchaser snapped it up so quickly," says Peden.

“The quick sale was also an indication of the dearth of such opportunities in the market at the moment and the resultant competition for them whenever they do appear,” he says.

The vendor, who declined to be named, was the developer of the building.

The property at 30 The Esplanade is a curving glass building featuring 14 apartments designed by SJB Architects and stands between traditional terrace houses and a McDonald’s restaurant just a short walk from the St Kilda Beach Acland Street retail and food strip.

A two-bedroom apartment in the building is currently listed for sale at $1.3 million through RT Edgar Albert Park while two apartments featuring two bedrooms are for rent at $900 and $1,000 per week.

The standout feature of 30 The Esplanade is its curved glass façade, which employs a "super-imposed graphic, built into the double-glazed window units, with the semi-transparent image placed between each layer to ensure it does not fade over time," according to architects SJB.

“The image references several characteristics inherent to St Kilda’s cultural fabric; the fishnet stockings simultaneously speaks of sex, the seaside and the politics of the promenade,” explained SJB’s Michael Bialek in 2009.

“St Kilda has a rich and varied history, from the artists in residence and the European immigrant community that settled in the '50s to the strong tourist numbers that visit the area throughout the year,” he said.