May 22, 2026 — 5:00amCapital GainBuilding company Hickory has picked up one of the city’s most notorious sites, a bogus recycling plant in Lara that once held a 20-metre-high pile of rubbish and cost the state $71 million to clean up.Records show Hickory has slapped a caveat over the 14.49-hectare parcel of land at 300-400 Broderick Road. The builder is understood to be paying about $16 million but could not comment due to ongoing legal issues regarding the site.Firefighters at the C&D Recycling site in Lara in 2018. Country Fire AuthorityThere’s a dirty backstory to the site which has had far-reaching ramifications concerning responsibility for the costly clean-up operation.In 2004, the Australian Sawmilling Company (TASCO) paid $1.5 million for the block and later leased it to C&D Recyling.C&D Recycling then filled the site with 286,200 cubic metres of contaminated building waste, triggering years of complaints and anxiety in the outer western community. It caught fire in January 2018.The site, piled high with plastic, glass, timber, brick and concrete and contaminated with asbestos, was the subject of a cleanup order issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2019.Shortly before the EPA ordered the site’s clean-up, TASCO was put into voluntary receivership with consulting firm PwC by its main shareholder, the South Korean-owned Dongwha Australia.The huge remediation job was completed in 2022 after the EPA had started and won legal action against PwC as its administrator.A Supreme Court judgement ordering PwC to pay for the clean-up job was upheld by the Appeals Court on the grounds it was the occupier of the site. A further attempt to appeal the judgement was rejected by the High Court.Needless to say, there remains plenty of sensitivity about the site. The sale was negotiated by Sutherland Farrelly’s Grant Sutherland and Colliers’ Nick Saunders, who declined to comment.A fire broke out at the Lara recycling centre in January 2018.Country Fire Authority“We’re continuing to work to recover costs associated with the cleanup by pursing the site’s former owners, occupiers and other relevant parties,” an EPA spokesperson said.Midtown centreSydney-based Coombes Property Group has snared ISPT’s Midtown Melbourne shopping centre for $154 million.It’s the first major deal in the CBD since 2024, clocking in at a mere 6.6 per cent discount on the asking price, indicating the decline in the city’s property values may finally have found its floor.The 15,233-square-metre, nine-level shopping centre and office tower is at 246 Bourke Street on the corner of Swanston Street. Major tenants include Telstra, HSBC, Chemist Warehouse, Daiso and W-Cosmetics. It’s on a 2787 sq m site at the gateway to the Bourke Street Mall.246 Bourke Street, Melbourne.It’s a good time to buy into the centre. Cult Japanese retailer Muji will replace Telstra in the prime Bourke Street-fronting three-storey retail space.Cushman & Wakefield’s Oliver Hay, Trent Weir, Leon Ma and Daniel Wolman negotiated the sale, which attracted 13 offers.Coombes has had a busy six months since it was appointed to the Hunter Street Station precinct in Sydney, along with Mirvac and Lendlease.MA Financial advised Coombes during the acquisition and has been retained to provide asset and property management services.Maas buys gymFormer NRL player Wes Maas, who recently joined a consortium that bailed out the Derrimut 24:7 gym chain, has splashed out around $15 million on a Boronia development site with a Genesis Gym.Maas, who built an ASX-listed property investor and developer from scratch, is pulling together a nice little portfolio of gyms, having committed, back in January, to spending more than $80 million on the D24:7 chain in a joint venture with Cameron Pascoe and Hass Fahd.His firm, Maas Group, made a huge pivot in February when it sold its building materials unit for $1.7 billion to German multinational Heidelberg and invested $100 million in Firmus, the controversial Nvidia-backed data centre operator that is about to float on the ASX.Eight parties made an offer for the 1.46-hectare site at 258 Scoresby Road, which was put up for sale by its mortgagee, Manda Capital.258 Scoresby Road, Boronia.The property, situated halfway between Burwood Highway and Boronia Road on the corner of Manuka Drive, sits in front of parkland and the Knox Community Gardens.It was expected to sell to a residential developer but is now likely to remain a gym.Colliers agents Jozef Dickinson, Philip Heberling and Mark Burgio negotiated the transaction.Harvey NormanIn a neighbouring suburb, regional developer-investor Troon is offloading the Harvey Norman Centre in Knoxfield, not far from the Caribbean Gardens business park.Harvey Norman has a new 10-year lease on its share of the 14,747 sq m large format centre. Other tenants include Total Tools, Revo Fitness and a McDonald’s pad site which has a 20-year ground lease.The Harvey Norman Centre Knoxfield at 1464 Ferntree Gully Road. The centre returns $3 million a year in rent, 80 per cent of which comes from publicly listed tenants and has a long 9.3-year average lease term.It’s on a 3.92-hectare site, zoned Industrial 1, at 1464 Ferntree Gully Road.Records show Troon Property Group bought the centre, then on a larger 7-hectare site, from Homeco in 2022 for $45 million. Since then, Troon has subdivided the land and is planning a self-storage facility.Stonebridge’s Justin Dowers and Kevin Tong and JLL’s Stuart Taylor, Tom Noonan and Mingxuan Li have the listing and are expecting a price in the mid-$50 million range.Uni HillMLC Asset Management, the property arm of finance company Insignia, is offloading a four-level office at the University Hill precinct in Bundoora.University Hill, located immediately north of the Metropolitan Ring Road, was developed by Andrew and Michael Buxton’s MAB Corporation on the old Janefield Hospital opposite RMIT’s major Bundoora campus.30 Janefield Drive, University Hill.The mixed-use precinct is packed with shops, offices, apartment buildings and a hotel.Anchor tenants in the 3960 sq m office include Bolton Clarke, Australia’s largest in-home aged care services provider, and RMIT University’s Health Sciences Clinic which provides Chinese medicine, chiropractic, osteopathy and psychology services.The two organisations pay 85 per cent of the total net income of $1.93 million a year. The fully leased suburban office is expected to fetch in the mid-$20 millions, giving it a yield in the 7 per cent range.It last changed hands in 2018 when IOOF Holdings (recently rebadged as Insignia) paid $26.93 million to MAB. The office at 30 Janefield Drive was completed in 2015 and sold on a skinny 5.9 per cent yield.Colliers’ Scott Orchard and Eddie Foulkes and Knight Frank’s Tom Ryan and Trent Preece have the listing.They’re expecting it to attract offshore investors keen on its weighting towards the healthcare and education sectors and the potential land tax shelter provided by RMIT’s tenancy.Its proximity to the end of the Ring Road puts it close to the new North East Link, which is expected to be completed in 2028 and will connect three major highways.The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.More:Commercial real estateFor subscribersIndustrialOfficeSalesWasteRecycling crisisFrom our partners