Albert Park’s Former Mushroom Records HQ Draws Multiple Offers

9 Dundas Lane, Albert Park - for herald sun real estate. Former Mushroom Records HQ

9 Dundas Lane, Albert Park, has long been home to Mushroom Records. It’s now had multiple offers to be transformed into a home — or even apartments.

A varied set of offers puts 9 Dundas Lane at a crossroads: after decades as Mushroom Records’ base, the Albert Park property could become apartments, townhouses, offices or a single home. The range points to a basic tension in the sale: buyers see a large building with a distinctive laneway address, while the history attached to it gives the property a profile beyond its physical footprint. That history may shape how the site is remembered, but the buyer’s plans will determine what it becomes.

Several paths for the site

The former biscuit factory was listed in September with an asking range of $6m to $6.5m. Multiple offers had arrived before the expressions of interest deadline at noon, with buyers considering continued office use, conversion into two townhouses, several apartments or one expansive private residence. Those options represent very different approaches to the same building: retaining a workplace, dividing it for more than one household, or making the whole property a single home. The breadth of interest gives the sale its central question, but it doesn’t tell us which proposal is most viable.

Advise Transact’s Mark Wizel, who is advising Mushroom Records chief executive Matt Gudinski on the sale, said prospective buyers were drawn to the laneway setting. Some were also considering whether the building’s third storey could be extended. That possibility helps explain why buyers may view the site differently: its existing scale matters, while the prospect of adding to it could influence how a future owner thinks about the building. Any decision would still have to be weighed against the practical demands of the chosen use.

The building has a laneway location that has appealed to buyers, as has its expansive size.

The building has hosted Mushroom Records for decades, and the long list of celebrities that have gone through its doors.

Wizel said the campaign had attracted strong interest, leaving the sale price and buyer’s intended use as the key questions. He also said music industry figures had contacted the family to share memories of working in the building and with Michael Gudinski. That response is a reminder that a property can carry a story buyers can’t measure in floor area alone. Still, sentiment and commercial interest aren’t the same thing, and the eventual offer will show which considerations mattered most in the negotiations.

Marshall White’s Oliver Bruce and agents at Stonebridge handled inquiries. Bruce said interested groups had begun due diligence and that negotiations were expected to enter their final stages, with a sale anticipated. Due diligence is where broad ideas meet the particulars of a building: interested groups assess whether their intended use fits what they’re buying. The process can narrow a crowded field, but the article gives no indication yet of which proposal is ahead.

A storied address changes hands

The property has served as Mushroom Records’ headquarters for 46 years. Acts including Kylie Minogue, Jimmy Barnes, Skyhooks, Archie Roach, Paul Kelly, Hunters & Collectors, Yothu Yindi, Vance Joy and The Temper Trap were associated with the label during that time. Frontier Touring was also established there, bringing international performers such as Madonna, Taylor Swift and The Rolling Stones to Australia. The list gives the address a public identity unusual for a commercial property: its significance comes from the work and careers connected to it, as well as from the building itself.

Ed Sheeran was a regular visitor and regarded Michael Gudinski as a mentor. Gudinski, who died in 2021, also part-owned Melbourne Cup winners Almandin, Rekindling and Twilight Payment. The building’s meaning to the family and the music business is clear from these connections, though that legacy won’t automatically decide its next use. For a buyer, the challenge is balancing the site’s history with the needs of a new purpose. A strong story, by itself, can’t settle that question.

Michael Gudinski at the property in 2015. David Geraghty / The Australian.

Matt Gudinski in front of the building earlier this year. Picture: Tony Gough.

Matt Gudinski has described the address as globally known in the music business and central to Mushroom’s story. He said he’d been visiting since childhood, and acknowledged the difficulty of leaving a place that held so many memories while looking ahead to its next chapter. That personal attachment adds another dimension to a sale already carrying more than ordinary commercial interest. The family is letting go of a workplace that has also been part of its history.

What the next use will signal

This is more significant than it looks. The buyer’s choice will determine whether the building retains a commercial role or shifts to housing, and that choice will give the property a very different place in Albert Park’s story. If you’re working in this space, the range of offers is a useful reminder that a distinctive building can attract interest from buyers with sharply different plans. Here’s the thing: an asking range and a busy campaign don’t reveal the outcome. The sale price, intended use and any decision about the third storey remain the details to watch (and this is the part most people overlook).

And yet, the property’s past is likely to remain part of how people understand the address, whatever happens inside it. The building may become a home, several homes, or continue as offices. A new chapter, with the old one still visible in the story.

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