Toplace founder Jean Nassif’s biggest Sydney site hits the sale block

Fugitive developer Jean Nassif’s planned high-rise precinct opposite a metro station in Sydney’s Hills District has crumbled, with the site that cost more than $300m to assemble now for sale.

A block of land in Sydney’s Hills district that Jean Nassif spent more than $300m to assemble is now for sale.

Fugitive developer Jean Nassif’s planned high-rise precinct opposite a metro station in Sydney’s Hills District has crumbled, with the site that cost more than $300m to assemble now on the block.

The collection of more than 30 houses in West Pennant Hills was put together in the last property boom when his Toplace empire was expanding.

But it has since collapsed with a series of sites sold off around Sydney and the company going into administration, with the developer himself now living in Lebanon and a warrant out for his arrest.

The West Pennant Hills site was the among the largest ever put together after Mr Nassif snapped up more than 30 homes in The Hills for a high-rise residential development.

DVT Group administrators Antony Resnick and Suelen McCallum declined to comment but the site is being marketed by real estate agencies Colliers and CBRE.

The enclave of luxury homes in Sydney’s northwest was purchased individually by Mr Nassif at a cost of more than $300m million as part of his vision to build towers next to Cherrybrook Metro station.

The 32-home site has been billed as one of creditors’ last hopes to retrieve outstanding cash owed to them.

The Daily Telegraph revealed the developer had splashed out on the properties for prices ranging from $2.7m and $30m between August 2014 to June 2019, as part of a plan to build 46 high-rise towers surrounding the Cherrybrook Metro.

The Toplace proposal for ‘Cherrybrook Village’, submitted in 2016, included plans for residential buildings ranging from two to 15 storeys in height with 3200 homes, but its final form will now be decided by a new developer.

A series of Toplace properties have already been sold off.

They include Sam Kassis, the founder of Kassis Homes, buying one of the key Castle Hill sites for $54.25m.

He also bought a property across the road from where Mr Nassif left behind his trail of defect-riddled and incomplete apartments in the Skyview towers.

Another western Sydney developer, ALAND, struck a $100m deal to acquire a Parramatta site, and plans to build smaller twin towers than the skyscrapers once proposed by Mr Nassif.

ALAND has bought the parcel of land at 189 Macquarie St from dVT Group, which was appointed after Mr Nassif fled Australia with a warrant out for his arrest over fraud allegations.

Toplace had originally been approved to build 425 units, among other things, in a 30-storey development on the site. But works were halted because of controversy surrounding basement levels being built without consent and without being waterproofed.

The sales have been going on since early 2022.

Major sites in western Sydney sold off in deals worth more than $120m in late 2023.

The biggest was a huge undeveloped site in the suburb of Schofields, which was picked up in a debt-related deal for about $80m.

The Schofields property was billed as a multistage residential development by Toplace, which bought it for $35m in 2014

It had approval for 17 buildings and it is now controlled by western Sydney construction company Bathla.

Another industrial property site that was once part of the Toplace empire has been sold at a loss of about $30m in Parramatta, on behalf of receiver KordaMentha, which was acting for a finance house.

The properties on River Rd West and Arthur St were assembled by Toplace in 2015 for about $70m but sold for about $40m.

Mr Nassif is the subject of a NSW Police arrest warrant related to fraud allegations over a $150m Westpac loan. 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 in 2022, days after its building licence was suspended indefinitely by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal over defects at its developments.

In June last year, property giants Greystar and Goodman bought major sites in southern Sydney, picking them up for more than $160m before Toplace called in administrators.