One of Melbourne's prime retail spaces located in the central business district will be up for public auction on December 15, 2010.

The site located at 193 Elizabeth Street was once a McGill's book store. The offering is set to feed strong demand in the US$10,000,000 to US$20,000,000 price range for prime Melbourne retail investment properties.

The auction campaign will be steered by CBRE's Sebastian Drapac and Mark Wizel with the property to be offered on site. "We have continually spoken with the vendors about offering the property to the market but they had little interest," Drapac said.

"The strong sales result achieved at 389 Swanston and the Bradman's building at 270-272 Bourke Street convinced the owners of the strong demand for assets of this ilk."

The site for sale is a two level retail building located nearby Bourke Street Mall and Melbourne's GPO. Currently, the property houses three retail shops which offer a 10 year lease to Subway, seven-year leases to Michel's Patisserie and Wild Cards, and a first level leased to Bernards Magic Shop, Australia's oldest magic shop and an Elizabeth Street institution.

The investment will offer buyers annual rent increases, market reviews as well as depreciation benefits. Wizel said that an increasing number of international investors were continuing to chase Melbourne CBD retail investment opportunities.

He said: "We anticipate strong interest from both local and offshore investors for the landmark offering of 193 Elizabeth Street which gives investors a terrific opportunity to own a centrally located, freestanding retail investment property that has terrific diversity in its income and a significant percentage of the income underwritten by long leases to well performing national food and beverage retail tenants."

The building currently earns an income of around US$556,533 net per annum across all tenants.