Partners and residents call a new tune for their Point Piper project
Two long-term Point Piper residents have joined forces to develop one of the most exclusive apartment blocks in Sydney’s wealthy eastern suburbs.
Long-term Point Piper residents Charles Mellick and Danny Avidan have joined forces to develop one of the most exclusive apartment blocks in Sydney’s wealthy eastern suburbs.
The partners have scrapped previous plans for the Wunulla Rd, Point Piper site, favouring instead 15 large, luxury apartments spread throughout a four-level building adorned with cascading gardens and designed by one of the area’s leading architects, the Italian-born Luigi Rosselli.
The developers and financiers behind the area’s newest development, known as Piper, are relying on owner-occupiers, empty-nesters and the burgeoning downsizer market to snap up the opulent apartments, which include interiors by Melbourne’s MIM Design and landscaping by Dangar Barin Smith.
Mr Mellick, a director of property developer Fortis, together with lawyer and ragtrader turned property developer Mr Avidan of the Dare Property Group, snapped up the 2a Wunulla Rd, Point Piper site last year for $40m, no doubt attracted by its proximity to the popular The Boat House Rose Bay restaurant as well as Cranbrook school.
They are on Saturday launching the long-awaited project, saying it has an expected completion date by the first quarter of 2024.
Prices start at more than $4m apiece for two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments in the Piper complex with marketing agent CBRE’s Ben Stewart stressing that the apartments are large. Indeed, he says they are “house sized”.
Mr Stewart said Piper’s three two-bedroom apartments replete with study and two bathrooms were a hefty 127sq m-140sq m.
Prices start at $6m-plus for the project’s three-bedroom apartments, which come in sizes from 161sq m.
Piper’s five four-bedroom apartments with three bathrooms have internal areas of between 210sq m and 260sq m.
Each apartment in the four-level complex, about 6km from the Sydney CBD, will feature soaring ceilings, open layouts, large living plans, entertaining and outdoor areas.
Some apartments will feature private swimming pools, while outside the plan is for cascading gardens and terraces cooled by northeasterly sea breezes.
“With an expected end value of $150m, we are confident that the proposed development will be well received by Point Piper locals and the wider community, unveiling a fresh approach to luxurious apartment living,” Mr Mellick said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Mr Avidan said that both he and Mr Mellick were long-time residents of Point Piper and said they “shared a strong, emotional bond with its close-knit community”.
Mr Stewart said he believed the project would attract owner-occupiers, empty-nesters and downsizers, adding that the market was getting stronger, particularly in the tightly held waterfront eastern suburbs locations.
“There is a flight to quality for buyers who are seeking prime positioned, well-designed homes in high quality developments,” he said.
“There has been nothing of this scale built in Point Piper for many, many years.”
Piper is on a 2400sq m site on the fringe of Rose Bay, Bellevue Hill and Double Bay – close to its shopping village and commercial precinct.
Fortis is owned by the Pallas Group and has $1.25bn worth of projects under construction or in planning in Sydney, with a further $1bn pipeline of work in Melbourne. Dare Property Group is building a luxury beachfront apartment project in nearby Tamarama with apartments selling to high-profile business people such as Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci, who has purchased a sub-penthouse in the complex, paying at least $8.5m. Mr Avidan recently knocked back $14m for the penthouse in the Fletcher St project because, after adding to its design and extending its roof deck, he wants $16m for it.
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