Goodman, Greystar take slices of property assets being sold off by developer Jean Nassif

Wanted by the NSW organised crime squad and reportedly holed up in Lebanon, property developer Jean Nassif is still on the verge of a couple of major prime site sales.

The property empire controlled by colourful developer Jean Nassif is being carved up and property giants Greystar and the Goodman Group are swooping on major sites in South Sydney which are expected to reap more than $160m in total.

The developer has been quietly disposing of some commercial and residential properties and taking out loans against others.

Police issued a warrant for his arrest on June 9 and his daughter was arrested in February.

The lucrative sites had been earmarked for development as part of his Toplace apartment empire but they will not be built.

Sources suggested that trading out would be profitable as land values in the area have jumped.

Goodman is targeting the property at 146 and 154 O’Riordan St, Mascot, which was owned by Mr Nassif’s JKN Park entity. His Toplace business had won a permit for a 96-room hotel and 444 serviced apartments.

Mr Nassif picked up 154 O’Riordan St for $32m from Dexus in 2015 and then bought the neighbouring 146 O’Riordan St site. The latest sale was of the overall site across the two ­industrial estates.

Colliers agents Michael Crombie and Trent Gallagher marketed the property, which is believed to be changing hands for about $82m, but have not commented.

Mr Nassif is uncontactable.

Goodman is undertaking due diligence after a public tender process and declined to comment.

But picking up the site adds to its South Sydney holdings.

It has been planning to build a series of multistorey warehouses in the area as it looks to ride the last-mile delivery boom.

Ashlyn and Jean Nassif.

In nearby Zetland, Mr Nassif’s 888 Place Pty Ltd sold an apartment site at 888 Bourke St, where excavation work had begun and a two-year construction was expected to be completed in 2025.

The mixed-use development was to have about 182 apartments.

But property records show it changed hands last month for $79.2m, with build-to-rent company Greystar linked to the purchase. It has declined to comment but is one of the leading operators in the sector and has been looking to expand into Sydney.

On Friday June 9 Mr Nassif, who had been reported to be in Lebanon, was the subject of an arrest warrant. Detectives attached to NSW Crime Command’s Organised Crime Squad launched an investigation into alleged financial crimes in April 2021.

Mr Nassif’s daughter, Ashlyn Nassif, 27, is currently before the courts, accused of falsifying a property pre-sale contract in order to secure a $150m Westpac loan on a residential development, and has been charged with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and publishing false misleading material to ­obtain advantage.

The two companies behind that construction site, 51 OCHR and JKN Finance, were placed into receivership in March. Mr Nassif is the director of both.

He gained internet fame after buying his wife a yellow Lamborghini worth about $480,000 on Valentine’s Day four years ago. He went viral on social media after filming the delivery of the car, inadvertently becoming a meme after famously saying: “Congratulations, Mrs Nassif. You like?”

The latest deals are a world away from most of the institutional trading in commercial property although the developer is well-known as a prolific asset trader.

In 2021, Mr Nassif made a $75m profit selling an industrial site in western Sydney he had owned for six years. A Goodman fund paid his ­Toplace business $140m for the property, in the Sydney suburb of Clyde.

That year he also offloaded a site in Parramatta for about $70m to the partnership between Gurner Group and Qualitas. A high-rise tower is being built there.

Originally published as Goodman, Greystar take slices of property assets being sold off by developer Jean Nassif