Toplace carve-up kicks off as developers chase key sites

The sell-off of Jean Nassif’s Toplace property empire is stepping up with key sites hitting the market.

The carve-up of Jean Nassif’s property empire is stepping up with key sites hitting the market.

Mr Nassif’s Toplace fell into administration in July and has debts of over $1.2bn, with a trail of unpaid suppliers and tradespeople, and defective apartment buildings.

Mr Nassif has been in Lebanon since December and is the subject of a NSW Police arrest warrant related to fraud allegations over a $150m Westpac loan. But he has claimed that he has been trying to strike a deal with police to get bail if he returns to Sydney.

Toplace went into administration days after its building licence was suspended indefinitely by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal over defects found at its developments.

Toplace’s incomplete tower blocks and defective apartments in Castle Hill are not likely to hit the market until they are fixed up. But his other lucrative property holdings across the city are being carved up with some sites already sold and others hitting the sales block.

The properties that are coming to market mainly carry approvals for apartments and in some cases early works have started.

Property developer Jean Nassif. Picture: Liam Mendes

FTI receivers Joseph Hansell and David McGrath are selling off the Box Hill Town Centre retail and residential development site in Sydney’s Hills District.

The site, under the control of finance house MaxCap, is being handled by real estate agencies CBRE and Knight Frank. Big developers are expected to vie for the project, which carries plans for a Coles-anchored shopping centre and 660 residential apartments.

They are pitching the Terry Rd site as providing a rare opportunity to secure a supermarket development project with a large residential component. The $600m project is likely to be picked up by a local developer as it carries both income from town centre retail investment and the ability to sell apartments.

Another Toplace site in the Sydney suburb of Schofields is under the control of administrators DvT and is billed as a multistage residential development.

The sale is being handled by RWC Western Sydney and is understood to have been chased by big players keen on buying the largest site in the town centre precinct in Sydney’s fast-growing north west corridor. The site has approval for 1381 units across 17 buildings and Toplace completed much of the infrastructure works.

An artist’s impression of Toplace Cherrybrook Village Precinct plans.

Buyers are also circling a controversial car park in the western Sydney hub of Parramatta. The Macquarie St complex includes above ground floors and an underground component where Toplace undertook illegal works, complicating any sale. But it could be worth up to $80m if a developer was able to rectify the floors and even build above the car park.

A controversial site in Cherrybrook opposite the train station could also come onto the block. Mr Nassif’s plans for 46 high-rise towers to be built on the site in the northwest Sydney suburb were rejected by a NSW government planning panel.

The Hills Shire Council opposed the plans for 3200 homes directly across from the Metro Station. But the site became the subject of allegations made under parliamentary privilege about senior members of the Liberal Party and state executive receiving payment from Mr Nassif.

Mr Nassif declined to appear at a NSW parliamentary committee into the allegations earlier this year.

The time frames for the coming sales may be extended by complications from the collapse of its empire, although some of the easier sites already sold.

In June, property giants Greystar and the Goodman Group swooped on major sites in south Sydney, picking them up for more than $160m before Toplace called in administrators.

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