Xavier College sells Kostka Hall, Brighton, campus for about $100m

Elite boys’ school Xavier College has claimed a new suburb record by selling one of its campuses to a property developer.

Xavier College’s Kostka Hall campus in Brighton has been sold for ‘circa $100m’, the school’s principal William Doherty said.

Xavier College will reap around $100 million thanks to the sale of its historic Brighton Kostka Hall campus – the biggest deal in the area in decades.

The 3.29 hectare site, which has been owned by the school since 1937, will set a new property record in the upmarket beachside suburb.

It’s understood Haileybury College and Brighton Grammar expressed interest in the site but it has been sold to a bayside property developer.

The expansive property, located a short walk to the beach, includes the Maritima mansion built in 1877, numerous buildings and sporting fields.

The prestigious school announced in 2020 it was closing its Brighton campus. Picture: Mark Stewart

The leading Jesuit boys’ school closed the South Rd site in 2020 after enrolments declined, making the decision to concentrate the school on its primary site in Barkers Rd Kew.

The school, while wanting to retain some bayside enrolments, is hoping to expand its student base in the northern suburbs.

When the sale was announced, a $120 million price tag was suggested by real estate agents, dwarfing the $32 million paid for a commercial property in Middle Brighton and $25 million paid for the Zagame family’s home in Kent Ave.

Xavier College principal William Doherty told the school community on Friday that the sale had gone through “to a local private developer for circa $100 million as the culmination of strong unconditional bidding”.

Mr Doherty said the Society of Jesuits, the land-holders, governed the sale and will “disperse the large majority of the income from the sale to the ongoing development of Xavier College and our educational infrastructure, with some funds also being allocated to ongoing student bursaries”.

“The College is aware that confirmation of the sale of Kostka Hall will understandably bring forward, once again, many strong memories and emotions from those in our community for whom Kostka has played such a special part in their lives,” he said.

The school, which charges year 12 fees of $35,000 a year, has an annual recurrent income of $62 million and an accumulated $10 million in capital expenditure.

It has already started building a state-of-the-art year seven and eight school building, billed by architects as a “multistorey learning street that overlooks the College’s iconic Memorial Chapel and famous sports fields, while showcasing learning to the broader school community, sparking curiosity”. It will be known as the Kostka building.

It comes as Christian College Geelong, which recently purchased a 40-hectare Bellarine Peninsula vineyard and stately homestead called Suma Park.

Many private schools are investing heavily in high-end architecturally-designed buildings. They include a new performing arts centre at Star of the Sea, a new theatre at Loreto College, and a new year middle school facility at Camberwell Girls’ Grammar.