Capital Gain
The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney (CAS) is hoping to raise more than $20 million in the sale of its landmark property in Sydney’s inner west which it has owned and occupied since 1992.
The heritage site at 95-103 Albert Road, Strathfield, was constructed in the 1890s, was extended in 1911 and had a library added in 1996.
According to records, the CAS bought it in 1992 for about $2.1 million, and it now comprises a freehold land area of 6635 square metres with 30 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms and 45 car spaces.
The property is currently occupied by the Catholic Institute Sydney (CIS), which intends to relocate closer to the University of Notre Dame Australia and its Broadway Campus. It plans to grow strategic and educational ties between university students and seminarians.
It originally served the NSW Home Lending Society for the Blind, the Industrial Home for Blind Women, and the Retreat for Aged Female Blind, and was closed and sold in 1897.
In 1911, it was extended by the Bedford Collegiate School for Girls, adding a barrack for WWII women. When CAS purchased the site, it had most recently been used by Australia Post.
Michael Murphy from McGrath Strathfield and Knight Frank’s Anthony Pirrottina are the agents on the sale.
Foxy move
The popular and highly sought-after White Fox boutique online fashion brand has thrown down the gauntlet to traditional high street retailers by buying a large-scale warehouse in Sydney’s south to cater for demand.
Proving that online shopping is the growth sector of the retail industry, while shop front-based stores are closing, the business, run by Daniel and Georgia Contos, paid $87 million for the site at 19 O’Riordan Street, Alexandria which is a 10,238 square metre industrial facility on a 13,140 sqm freehold site.
The new warehouse was purpose-built by the vendor, and former owner-occupier, True Alliance which is controlled by the Hendler brothers. The facility comprises high-clearance warehousing, a 1,219 sqm mezzanine, three levels of office accommodation and 102 car spaces and has capacity to extend the site to 32,850 sqm.
The Alexandria site will improve order fulfilment for the brand’s high-volume weekly product drops, moving the company from a tenant to a property owner for its logistics network. It will add to White Fox’s $70 million acquisition of a five-storey boutique commercial office on Dunning Avenue in nearby Rosebery in May.
That site is the group’s headquarters and boasts a bar, podcast studio, wellness space, gym, its very own pink slide, a café, a library, a ‘treats space’, a vending machine offering tan products, basketball court, a Pilates studio, therapy room, lunchroom, sauna, studios and an auditorium.
Colliers agents Michael Crombie and Trent Gallagher advised on the sale.
Centennial expands
The busy private Sydney-based fund manager, Centennial Property has extended its portfolio with its first regional industrial landholding at Ballina in northern NSW in a deal worth $22 million.
The deal is a major pivot from its usual metro infill stomping grounds after teaming up with Brisbane’s Direct Commercial Property (DCP) to secure the 8.3 hectare site at 45-65 Smith Drive, West Ballina.
Centennial is run by chairman Jonathan Wolf and chief executive Paul Ford, with a portfolio of 63 assets and over $2.8 billion under management across the industrial and logistics, office, retail and boutique residential sectors.
As Ballina’s largest contiguous industrial landholding, with direct exposure to the M1 Pacific Motorway, the joint venture partners will develop it into an 18-lot subdivision for selling down to capitalise on the scarcity of industrial sites in the Ballina-Byron Shires. The development will have an end value around $70 million.
JLL and North Coast Commercial Real Estate were the agents on the sale.
Billbergia retail
Private developer Billbergia has sold all the retail and commercial section of its Arncliffe Central project for $37 million, in a single deal to a private equity fund.
The sale covers 4,000 square metres of shops at 161-173 Princes Highway, Arncliffe, which includes a supermarket, smaller stores and a childcare centre. The retail space in Sydney’s south sits beneath 806 apartments across four towers, all of which have sold.
Consistent with the strategy of Billbergia to create communities, the development also includes a 1,634 sqm library and community centre, a 4,000 sqm public park, new pedestrian links and customer parking.
The sale was brokered by RWC Sydney City Fringe’s Kamal Silwal.
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