Fabio Angele at Brunetti. Credit:Cathryn Tremain The dispute took an aggressive turn when Ms Halperin engaged a commercial agent to re-lease the Brunetti space before the VCAT hearing. That move appalled Mr Angele, who bought the business from founder Piero Brunetti in 2001, and a year later undertook a flash $2 million renovation of the Faraday Street premises (which included laying the renowned terrazzo floors). Also in 2002 Ms Halperin reportedly spent some $400,000 on the facade. Brunetti occupies five adjoining shopfronts of which four are directly controlled by Ms Halperin. Before 1985, the Faraday Street building was occupied at various times by a Jewish newspaper, costume maker, feather dresser, confectioner and saddler. The 270-squaremetre, ground-floor open-plan cafe, with an address of 194-196 Faraday Street, is now for lease asking $180,000 per annum. Fitzroys agent Mitchell Humphreys says an upstairs office of about 250 square metres and with a separate Faraday Street entrance is also available.

The Night Cat is staying put. Credit:Alan Baxter Lang Lang opening up THE south-east region of Lang Lang, since 1957 identified as the home of Australia's first automotive testing and development complex controlled by Holden, is about to be seen by thousands more Victorians and travellers. This week the Cardinia Shire Council moved to rezone a major farm on the township's outskirts to allow for residential development. The affected land is next to the South Gippsland Highway that connects Melbourne to many regional towns including Koo Wee Rup and Korumburra. At present, commuters take the McDonalds Track or the Westernport Road exits to access Lang Lang, which is 73 kilometres from Melbourne's CBD.

The Night Cat purrs on A VERY local investor outmuscled an owner-occupier and a swathe of residential developers to acquire the Fitzroy property tenanted by The Night Cat this week. Applause followed the lively auction when it was revealed a neighbouring land owner, Andrew Demetriou - not the AFL CEO - bought the property for $4.63 million - $1.4 million more than it was quoted at last month. Mr Demetriou owns the gymnasium, bagel shop and Centrelink offices that surround The Night Cat building at 137-141 Johnston Street. The 20-year old bar would have faced eviction in 2014 had the site sold to a builder as expected. The single-level building sits on a large 842 square metre block on the north-west corner of Young Street, near the popular Brunswick Street retail strip, but opposite a petrol station. It's understood Mr Demetriou has a strong relationship with The Night Cat operators - and that the bar will now be offered a long-term lease. The Night Cat currently pays $195,000 in annual rent. Attended by more than 100 people, the underbidder was reportedly Reece Plumbing, which planned to owner-occupy.

Colliers International's Jeremy Gruzewski and Andrew Ryan marketed the asset with CBRE's Mark Wizel and Scott Callow. Agency Vinci Carbone, represented the purchaser. Thomastown's newbies EQUIPMENT shelter designer and manufacturer ICS Industries is believed to be paying $9 million for a large Thomastown asset currently owner-occupied by Bunnings. The 27,200 square metre site at 309 Settlement Road, on the south-west corner of Dalton Road and near a Metropolitan Ring Road intersection, includes a 6896 square metre industrial building and 193 parking bays. Wesfarmers-controlled Bunnings is offloading the asset, which is still registered as belonging to BBC Hardware, formerly owned by the Howard Smith Group that Wesfarmers acquired in 2001.

Based on the sale price the asset sold on a yield of 9 per cent. ICS is expected to owner-occupy. CBRE selling agent Dean Hunt, who sold the Settlement Road asset before a scheduled auction, said prospective buyers were attracted to the Business 4 zoning which allowed for a variety of future development options. He marketed the site with colleague Matthew Sampson. Thomastown is about 17 kilometres north of town, bordering Campbellfield, Lalor, Epping and Reservoir. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Thomastown was considered an outer suburb of Melbourne, but with the development this century of suburbs like Craigieburn and Wollert, almost 30 kilometres from the CBD, Thomastown is now considered middle-ring. Masonic Centre to stay

THE conservative Boroondara City Council has this week moved to impose heritage protection for a Camberwell Masonic Centre earmarked for demolition. Heritage control means redevelopment of the double-storey building at the south-west corner of Prospect Hill Road and Station Street, east of Melbourne, will be subject to more vigorous assessment. Like many other large blocks near the ritzy Burke Road retail strip, the site would most profit a developer if replaced with flats. The Masonic Centre was identified as significant in the Camberwell Junction Heritage Review that was conducted four years ago. Opus selling offices

ASSET values on St Kilda Road, it would seem, have not yet caught up to highs they were in 2006. This week, the Queensland-based Opus Capital Group quietly listed for sale an office at 437 St Kilda Road that it bought about six years ago for $27.2 million. On the eastern side of the tree-lined street, and with rear access to Fawkner Park, the low-rise glass building currently returns annual rent of $2.155 million. It's expected the asset will sell for about $25 million this time around, reflecting a yield of about 8.6 per cent. The building adds about 6518 square metres of A-grade office space to the St Kilda Road market, which has been shrinking since the 1990s and now totals just 743,397 square metres.

According to the Property Council of Australia's bi-annual Office Market Report, which assesses stock and vacancy in major national markets, exactly one third of space on 'St Kilda Road' is classified as A-grade (which is the class beneath Premium grade). The St Kilda Road precinct, as defined by the PCA, includes buildings on surrounding streets including Queens and Albert roads. Dawkins Occhiuto directors Andrew Dawkins and Walter Occhiuto are representing Opus with Chesterton's Ken Lucht. marcpallisco@gmail.com Twitter: @marcpallisco