Charles Mellick of Fortis nabs prime Double Bay site for $25.5m

Property developer Charles Mellick of Fortis has nabbed a controversial Double Bay site at auction for exactly the same price it sold for three years ago.

377-383 New South Head Rd, Double Bay sold for $25.5m, exactly the same price it sold for three years ago.

Property developer Charles Mellick of Fortis has nabbed a prime Double Bay site at auction for exactly the same price it sold for three years ago.

Once the home of the Art Deco Vogue Theatre, the modern five-level building at 377-383 New South Head Rd fetched $25.5m at auctioneer Damien Cooley’s rooms on Monday evening.

It was bought in May, 2021 for that exact figure by a company called Wisdom International, which has Minmei Yang and Zhaomin Jiang as shareholders.

Asked if he got a bargain, Mellick said: “No, not a super bargain”, though he did describe it as “good buying at $12,000 per sqm, I’ll eventually get the yield up and just hold it as an asset and there’s a lot happening to that southern side of New South Head Rd.”

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The Art Deco Vogue Theatre once occupied the site.

Greater Union redeveloped the site nine years ago.

The vendors back in 2021 had been Greater Union, who in 2015 had redeveloped the old cinema site that had become the Village Twin Double Bay in 1972.

This time it was being sold by Miron Solomons and Matt Pontey of Colliers, with Grant Whiteman of Ray White Commercial Eastern Suburbs, on behalf of receivers KordaMentha.

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There’d been a a few rumours floating round ahead of the auction, including that the property was caught up in a money laundering operation — when asked, an Australian Federal spokesperson said: “The AFP has no comment.”

The agents also had no comment.

A lot of usual suspects were there, or their proxies, perhaps scenting a bargain. Vaughan Blank; a representative of Eduard Litver.

But it was Mellick, who once called Double Bay his “passion project”, who was always the most likely purchaser.

It offers an annual return of $930k.

Bidding opened at $20.5m.

There were nine registered, though in the end, just three put in a bid.

The auction was a brief affair, with the first offer $20.5m, and Cooley declaring it “selling” from that point, perhaps suggesting that was the receivers’ reserve.

It was mainly a contest between Mellick and the buyer’s agent Paul Fernandes, with the $50k bids flying to $23m, and then a series of bids ranging from $100k; 500k and $400k.

The building is one of Double Bay’s largest commercial buildings with an annual income of circa $930,000.

Currently home to BeFit gym; serviced office provider @workspaces; and Universal Health among others, the the building has a land area of 588sqm and a lettable area of 1529 sqm.

The agents hadn’t cited a price guide, though the most recent comparable sale was ROMA Arcade, which sold at the start of the year for $20.5m to GWS Giants deputy chairman Adrian Fonseca.

Originally published as Charles Mellick of Fortis nabs prime Double Bay site for $25.5m