Phillip Island development site expected to fetch $10.8m

Melbourne aged-care entrepreneur John Matthies is expecting about $10.8m for his mixed-use development site in Cowes.

John Castran says the site, fronting The Esplanade and Bass Avenue, is the most significant offering of commercial property ever put to market on Phillip Island.

Melbourne aged-care entrepreneur John Matthies is expecting about $10.8m for his mixed-use development site in Cowes, a holiday area on Victoria’s Phillip Island.

The site of five separate parcels ranging from 1012sq m to 4047sq m, will be sold in one line or separately through celebrity Melbourne agent John Castran.

John Castran

Outstanding views are available from the site over the Cowes Jetty, Western Port Bay and the Mornington Peninsula. Castran says the site, fronting The Esplanade and Bass Avenue, is the most significant offering of commercial property ever offered on Phillip Island. The site once held the 1920s-built timber Isle of Wight Hotel which was burnt to the ground 10 years ago. At that point the prominent site was slated for the development of a five-star hotel. There is an expression-of-interest campaign under way.

$22m, unsighted

The cashed-up $22m buyers of Geoff and Ros Morgan’s Wategos Beach holiday shack, which broke all Byron Bay records when it sold recently, are understood to hail from Melbourne. The pair of businessmen apparently snared the luxury property, which sold through Michael Coombs, founder of LJ Hooker Avnu, sight unseen.

Radio man’s exit

Voice-over artist Steve Barker is selling his renovated Hobart waterfront in Gellibrand Lane, Opossum Bay, with an asking price of more than $1.1m. Barker, the chief radio reporter for the Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race, reckons affordable waterfronts do exist.

71 Gellibrand Lane Opossum Bay. Picture: Charlotte Peterswald

“We ended up buying a high water title property just 14km from the finish line (as the crow flies) and spent many years and dollars, creating a practical and comfortable beachfront, lifestyle home,” Barker says. The property is on the market through Charlotte Peterswald for Property agent Nick Morgan and is about 40 minutes’ drive from Hobart. Barker is selling the beach house to return to the mainland. The three-bedroom house on more than 1000sq m fronts a beach and has parking for five cars.

Proximity to CBD

Melbourne real estate identity John Williams has listed his apartment in the Royal Domain Tower Residence with interiors by the late Stuart Rattle with a guide of $2.95m to $3.245m. The auction, through Michael Paproth of The Agency, is scheduled for December 10. Adjacent to the Royal Botanic Gardens and close to Federation Square, the apartment covers 230sq m with three large double bedrooms and two bathrooms. The development includes Paul Bangay-designed gardens. There’s an indoor golf driving range and parking for two cars.