It is selling the site to local apartment developer Blue Earth Group, directed by Michael Dib.

JTX bought the former Courtney and Patterson car yard at 37-67 Bell Street when it was zoned Heidelberg - a suburb where the median two-bedroom unit price is $583,000, according to Domain Group Data.

It was recently reclassified Ivanhoe, where property values are higher (two-bedroom apartments here have been averaging $615,000, according to Domain).

While the suburb rezoning was taking place, JTX was also boosting the value of the site, by replacing proposed apartment redevelopment plans which came with the site, with something substantially more sizeable.

When JTZ settled on its $8.3 million for the property, it came with development plans - not a permit - for a five-level building.

In October JTX lodged and was later approved to replace the 8285 square metre site at the south-west corner of Linden Street with what was reported as Ivanhoe's largest mixed-use project.

Bellelle, as it was branded on JTX's website, includes an 11-storey tower containing 244 flats, 180 aged care dwellings, a childcare centre, offices and shops. The proposed landmark - with an internal area of 36,000 square metres - is as big as many CBD skyscrapers.

The permit was approved after an earlier application by JTX did not proceed for a 16-storey complex with 224 apartments, 151 aged care dwellings and a 156-room hotel.

CBRE's Scott Orchard, Julian White and Mark Wizel marketed the Bell Street property for JTZ, which has offices in Thornbury and Shanghai.

It is trading to Blue Earth Group which last year, following an off-market deal, paid $15.4 million for a Brunswick West property at 1-5 Olive York Way, which has since been replaced with an apartment building.

In 2015, Blue Earth Group paid $12 million for a former Nissan car yard in Keilor Road, Essendon North, with the intention of also replacing the block with flats.

The Ivanhoe deal comes two months since the JTZ offloaded a 31 hectare Craigieburn plot for a speculated $12 million. It obtained another landmark permit for that 650-700 Hume Highway block which it bought from VicRoads for $8.25 million in 2011. The proposal, Humex, included high density apartments, a four-star hotel and homemaker centre.

Former Elwood depot sells for $11m

Meanwhile, in Melbourne's exclusive bayside belt, an investor has flipped a once historic site to an offshore developer for $11 million - a substantial rise on the $6.5 million they paid four years ago.

The Elwood Tram and Bus Station operated between 1907 and 1959 from the T-intersection of Head and St Kilda streets and Ormond Esplanade, at the Brighton suburb border.

A popular light rail connected the depot to the then-St Kilda train station at the bottom of Albert Park Lake.

But citing a costly upgrade, the government replaced the tram line with a bus service.

Much of the former depot was filled with a townhouse complex in the 1990s.

On the site which just exchange hands, a Mobile petrol station operated until 2011.

The 1958 square metre block hit the market in 2013 in a campaign targeting developers. It sold for some $2 million more than its initial price guide.

It is now expected to make way for a four-level apartment complex with more than 30 dwellings.

Savills negotiated the off-market deal.

High profile Notting Hill re-offering

A Notting Hill distribution centre owned at separate stages by a Macquarie Bank syndicate, Becton, 360 Capital Industrial Trust, and jailed property developer Mark Letten, is for sale or lease.

As well as some high-profile owners, it has had some major occupants including Linfox and Philip Morris.

If 40-48 Howleys Road sells, Colliers International is expecting a price of more than $12 million.

The suburb, about 19 kilometres south-east of Melbourne, is considered a high-tech hub, home to Monash University and the landmark synchrotron research facility.

Fitzroy warehouse sells for $6.6m

A consortium of local investors is paying $6.6 million for a historic red-brick Fitzroy warehouse with airspace redevelopment potential.

The 989 square metre, battle-axe shape block at 93-97 Webb Street is now mooted to accommodate a medium-density apartment complex.

At the eastern-most edge of the street, the property is metres from the thriving Smith Street retail strip and only about two kilometres from the north-east tip of the CBD.

Teska Carson's Tom Maule and Matthew Feld, with Nelson Alexander's Simon Verduci, marketed the holding, which had not been offered for 30 years.

Also in the suburb, in 2016, local developer Piccolo group paid Australian Volunteers International $7.8 million for a 1040 square metre site at 71-75 Argyle Street, on the north-east corner of Fitzroy Street - opposite a new 11-level apartment building.

Swire sells vacant factory for $16m

Swire Cold Storage has sold its Melbourne industrial headquarters of 12 years with vacant possession.

The three-hectare holding at 1513-1533 Centre Road, Clayton, with a 15,744 square metre cold storage facility, is speculated to be selling for about $16 million.

The "impeccably maintained" asset includes 18 loading docks and significant concrete hardstand "ideal for trucks", according to Colliers International industrial director Justin Fried, who marketed the site with colleague Jonathan Mercuri and Charter Keck Cramer via an expressions of interest campaign which closed in March.

Developers, owner-occupiers and investors were targeted for what they called a premium cold store facility. The buyer's identity is not yet known.

The south-east pocket, about 19 kilometres from the CBD, has been popular with owner-occupiers recently with Cold Xpress Refrigerated Transport paying more than $9 million for 830 Wellington Road, Rowville, and PFD snapping up a five hectare site at the Kingston Business Park in Knoxfield.

Last year, one of two neighbouring Clayton South properties occupied for decades by McCormacks Foods sold for $6 million with a leaseback to the 1889-born company.

Swire, meanwhile, still has a Melbourne base - an 18,000 square metre complex built in 2009 west of the CBD, at William Angliss Drive, Laverton North.

Email: marcpallisco@gmail.com

Twitter: @marcpalliso