Qantas House, at 2-6 Railway Parade, has sold for $23 million to another Melbourne backer.

The four-level building occupies a prime position within an office precinct on the southern side of the Camberwell train station, immediately east of the Burke Road retail strip. Abutting the boundary wall to the train tracks, Qantas House occupants enjoy north-facing natural light and CBD views.

The space Qantas House looks over was until recently the subject of a long-running contentious planning application which included a shopping centre and apartment buildings.

Developed in 1991 and refurbished in 2000, the 3838 square metre Qantas House sits on a 1318 square metre block with 148 car parks.

Qantas occupies 77 per cent of the building but is not renewing beyond September after recently announcing call centre functions based at Camberwell will move to Hobart. Australian Christian Services, which is committed to 13 per cent of the office until December 2015, is also rumoured to be vacating.

Jones Lang LaSalle director Joshua Tebb represented the vendor. Jason Perry of Premier Commercial acted for the purchaser. Both declined to comment about the sale.

In a twist, Laree Jane – the former wife of racing driver, Bob – has secretly sold a South Yarra shop to shoe retailer Peter Sheppard.

The $3.1 million deal occurred three months after a scheduled auction to sell the property was cancelled at the 11th hour. An online advertisement for the historic double-storey shop at 505 Chapel Street marks the asset "withdrawn".

Leased to Just Jeans until 2016 and on a 116 square metre block opposite the Jam Factory complex, the asset returns annual rent of about $140,000.

Laree rose to fame when, at 18, the beauty pageant contestant connected with the Bob Jane T Mart founder, then 58. The couple married in 1988 and raised a family, separating 20 years later and becoming estranged for a period before reconciling in 2010.

During the bitter divorce, played out in court, it was revealed Ms Jane couldn't live on an annual budget of less than $800,000 (or about $15,000 a week).

In 2013, Ms Jane, or administrators for her, listed several commercial assets. Just prior to Chapel Street being listed, a bank building in Wodonga sold for $2.6 million and a retail asset in Carlton exchanged for $3.8 million.

It is speculated Peter Sheppard Footwear will become owner-occupier of 505 Chapel Street after next year.

Two rival developers who in 2013 bought neighbouring lakeside blocks, then last year separately lobbied the council to replace them with apartment towers, have launched marketing campaigns scouting for buyers this month.

Hallmarc this week introduced The Arthur proposal, set to replace the Atari House office at 14 Queens Road. The launch comes a week after developer Kangoala, of which Andrew Rice is a development manager, unveiled its Queens Domain tower at number 12.

The Arthur replaces an earlier Hallmarc proposal to replace the site with a 143-room serviced apartment complex which would have been managed by its Tyrian hotel division.

At 77 Queens Road, at the southern end of the street, a proposal to build 160 flats in a 13-level tower is awaiting council approval. On the same block, two major towers have recently been completed including at number 74, a 13-level building by Evolve Developments – a builder backed by former Lord Mayor Ron Walker.

A former Williamstown North scrap yard, for years owned by AC Tivendale Demolitions, has been subdivided and sold down.

The industrial site, which in its heyday stored flattened pieces of Prahran's Moores Stores as well as some of the CBD's earliest buildings, has reaped the Tivendale family $2.3 million.

The former 5978 square metre block will now make way for five separate industrial developments. The lot sizes ranged from 1012 square metres and sold for a rate of $400 a square metre, a record for the area, according to the agents, Knight Frank's Matt Crofts and Joel Davy. The Tivendale family owned 33-39 Chelmsford Street for 40 years.

Supermarket near 'Ramsey Street' sells 

An Aldi-leased supermarket in Vermont South – a surprise tourist hotspot because it accommodates the court Channel Ten calls "Ramsay Street" – has sold for just over $6 million, reflecting a low yield of 4.5 per cent.

The 2012 square metre strata-titled retail space is within the Vermont South Shopping Centre.

If Aldi decides not to renew after 2027, the asset can be sectioned into smaller stores, possibly even subdivided and sold off as more affordable assets.

Allard & Shelton's Joseph Walton marketed the investment known as lots 59 and 61 of 495 Burwood Highway.

The shopping centre is near Pin Oak Court, the street beamed around the world in TV show Neighbours. The street is marked in many tour guides and is visited by tour buses daily.

Ford, which is quitting manufacturing in Australia, will move its headquarters from Broadmeadows to Richmond after leasing a super-prominent office at the south-east corner of Victoria and Burnley streets.

The Michigan-based motoring giant has leased 2500 square metres and naming rights to 600 Victoria Street, part of Salta's Victoria Gardens mixed-use development, being developed in stages on a site used by the Melbourne Fire Brigade for years as a training centre.

About 200 Ford employees, contractors and support staff will relocate mid-year.

Ford plans to replace its massive Broadmeadows factory with the $300 million Asia-Pacific Engineering Centre. However, many agents are expecting much of the site (like that of rival General Motors Holden in Fishermans Bend) will be sold in pieces to industrial developers over coming years.

Ford research and testing facilities currently based in Geelong and Lara will operate unaffected.

The company, which expects to roll the last Falcon off the Broadmeadows assembly line next year, joined GMH and Toyota in quitting manufacturing in Australia where labour costs are high relative to other parts of the world.

JLL's Joshua Tebb, with CBRE's Anthony Park, marketed 600 Victoria Street but declined to comment about the Ford deal.

When the ex-Fleet Partners space hit the market last year, it was asking rent of about $350 per square metre, per annum. Fleet Partners expanded into another Victoria Gardens office.

Email: marcpallisco@gmail.com

Twitter: @marcpallisco