The Sell: James & Co seek affordable housing bonuses for Potts Point redevelopment
James Packer and his property development partner Time & Place are now seeking to secure affordable housing bonuses for their proposal to redevelop The Chimes complex at Potts Point.
NSW
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Expatriate tycoon James Packer and his property development partner Time & Place are now seeking to secure affordable housing bonuses for their proposal to redevelop The Chimes complex at Potts Point.
There was a design proposal drafted by SJB scheduled for NSW Land & Environment Court consideration next week, but a higher and wider residential apartment project will now be sought under the NSW government state significant development process.
Packer’s NPACT Point Investments emerged in early 2023 as backing developer Tim Price’s Time & Place, which has been seeking since 2020 to purchase all 80 studio units plus 27 car spaces in the 1964 Macleay St block.
Its been a long, costly haul, as the 75 per cent compulsory acquisition threshold under the state government’s strata renewal legislation was triggered several years ago.
Mopping up the remaining 25 per cent of the 11-storey complex only came last month after a court judgment, and at significant cost.
There was a $1.4m acquisition determination for the last holdout owner who’d been in residence since paying $44,000 in 1982.
Valuers had told the court its “as-is” market value for the 33sq m space in 2023 was $585,000 with the disturbance value calculated to be $126,000, totalling $711,000, and by 2024 its redevelopment value plus disturbance was revalued up to $900,000.
The first 82 settled lots were secured for $76.6m, with the last holdouts costing $24.1m including a rumoured $700,000-plus for a 26sq m car space.
The initial 2020 compulsory buy-up offer for the strata building was priced at $85m, having attracted developer attention as it sits on less than a third of its 1289sq m holding.
Investors who have since sold for windfall gains have included former PM Paul Keating, retired stockbroker Greg Peacock and Home & Away actor Erika Heynatz.
Buoyed by affordable housing and design excellence bonuses, a 34-apartment, 13-storey, 50m-high block with a 5529sq m gross floor area is being sought.
By providing a 15 per cent affordable housing component for a 15-year period, the developer syndicate is seeking an additional 30 per cent in height and floor space above what was permitted under the City of Sydney’s 2012 local environment plan.
The developers face local opposition led by the Potts Point Preservation Group.
On the other side of Kings Cross, the Packer camp, in partnership with developer Third.i, are awaiting approval for their eight-storey shop top project at Rushcutters Bay.
The Woods Bagot-designed building proposed for 51-57 Bayswater Road has been scheduled for Land & Environment Court hearing in June.
NPACT is headed by Todd Nisbet, a former Crown Resorts executive.
JACENKO ‘PRIZE’ HOME SELLS FOR $7.3M
The luxury Cronulla home caught up in the Roxy Jacenko giveaway controversy last year has been sold for $7.3m.
Zephyr, on Dodson Ave, attracted headlines in March last year when it was offered in an ill-fated promotion for Jacenko’s Bootcamp course subscriptions.
Jacenko’s decision to quit the lottery venture resulted in contested court proceedings.
The PR mogul had partnered with the property owners Youssef Tleis and Kassim Alaouie on the promotion, offering her Bootcamp customers the chance to win what was billed as a $10m waterfront.
The construction duo had paid $3.36m in 2020, then demolished the 1960s home on 500sq m.
Tleis and Alaouie had also unsuccessfully sought in late 2023 to secure a $10m buyer for the contemporary four-bedroom waterfront on Port Hacking.
Zephyr has been quietly bought by a company directed by Andrew McVeigh, the Caringbah South-based founder of Remara Investment Management, and his wife, Rachael.
The former Brookfield Asset Management chief financial officer served as a board member of the Cronulla Sutherland District Rugby League Football Club in 2017.
Cronulla recently saw prices hit $22.5m with a sale on Taloombi St through Highland Property to the Cavanagh yacht brokerage family.
Meanwhile in between trips so far this year to Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Courchavel, Jacenko has been spending more time in Sydney after an 18-month stint in Singapore with her husband Oliver Curtis.
Jacenko has expressed mixed feelings about Singapore, describing it as “soulless.”
Last December the Wentworth Courier referenced she was on the home hunt in Sydney’s east, inspecting an $18m six-bedroom, four-bathroom Virginia Kerridge-designed Wentworth Rd, Vaucluse mansion several times.
But the house is still for sale.
Jacenko’s prior Vaucluse abode was sold for a bullish $16m in May 2023 to the Zhang family.
KAFTAN QUEEN NO LONGER REIGNS IN WOOLLAHRA AFTER MUTED MAKEOVER
The 1880s Woollahra home sold by fashion designer Camilla Franks last July for $7.65m has returned to the market, having lost most of its boho and clutter.
The five-bedroom home has potentially lost price-wise too since the latest price guidance has been given as $7m by Sotheby’s agent Maclay Longhurst.
PropTrack puts the Woollahra house median at $4,565,000, down 4.9 per cent annually.
The queen of the kaftan’s Edgecliff Rd residence was marketed last May as “embodying the bohemian luxe aesthetic for which her brand is synonymous, with her signature artistic fusion of colour, texture and pattern bringing a sense of wonder and whimsy”.
“Courageous colour choices and bejewelled finishes create a perfect counterpoint to the home’s original marble fireplaces and pressed metal ceilings for a look that is maximalism at its best. The inspiring interiors have an uplifting energy.”
The current vendor is Inland Rail boss Nick Miller and Emily Smith, who are apparently off to Nelson St, Woollahra.
Franks, known for her love of colour, had bought the Edgecliff Rd home in 2016 for $3,868,430, then installed her bold aesthetic.
“Each room has its own identity,” Franks once advised.
There was tension last time as one of the conjunctional agents had recommended Franks remove the bold wallpapers before going to market, but she rejected the suggestion that her bold aesthetic might narrow the pool of potential buyers.
The five-bedroom home had initially hit the market in March last year with $8m hopes.
The house sits above Woollahra’s ghost railway station, which was partly constructed in the early 1970s, before being abandoned due to cost overruns and local opposition.
Franks, who founded her brand 21 years ago, snared a cameo in HBO TV hit series The White Lotus, which also featured her designs.
PRIMO RESULT FOR KRUGER IN MOSMAN
TV presenter Sonia Kruger and her husband, former head of news and current affairs at Seven, Craig McPherson, have pocketed $19m from the sale of their Mosman house.
Their five-bedroom Stanton Rd trophy home settled mid-week with its cash buyer being the Primo Smallgoods matriarch Maria Hunt.
The couple, whispered to have sold for circa $20m, have been pinpointed as spending $16.1m on a nearby deceased estate. The three-bedroom Stanley Ave home was sold by the family of milk bar proprietor George Psaltis and wife Hariclea, who had paid $31,000 in 1967.
Kruger moved to Mosman nine years ago, paying $6.475m for an original house.
Her 2016 purchase marked her return to Mosman as she once owned a two-bedroom Musgrave St apartment which cost $490,000 in 1999 and was sold in 2005 for $927,500.
The couple then commissioned Corben Architects to redesign it, with another level. The $1m makeover included the addition of a lift.
Kruger had sold her Warrawee home for $3,725,000. The imposing abode had been bought in 2008, just before her six-year marriage to banker James Davies ended. They also owned an Elanora Heights home.
The former champion ballroom dancer, who found fame as Tina Sparkle in the 1992 film Strictly Ballroom, retains her Waratah Mills, Dulwich Hill investment apartment, which was bought off the plan for $255,000 in 2001.
BILLIONAIRE $15.2M BUYER REVEALED
Software giant Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes is the confirmed $15.2m buyer of the New York warehouse-style penthouse on the top level of Angus House in Darlinghurst.
The 585sq m apartment, which won the 2023 Master Builders Association Best Renovation award, was bought by the Cannon-Brookes family company directed by chief executive Casey Taylor and financial officer Faris Cosic.
It was sold by Dr Jonathan Seeff and his wife, Rachelle, who had paid $5.555m for the four-bedroom apartment that occupies the top floor of the former head office of Moran Health Care.
The building at the corner of Stanley and Palmer streets was initially redeveloped by developer duo Theo Onisforou and James Packer in the late 1990s into 18 apartments.
Cannon-Brookes, who split from wife Annie in mid-2023, enjoys a wealth of $29bn.
Meanwhile, a Surry Hills warehouse conversion, formerly the Labor Club premises, has been sold for $12.4m by Dr Andrew Goy. He had been seeking a buyer for the Bourke St property since last August, originally hoping for $14m
Stephen Collins was commissioned to convert the 370sq m space into a four-bedroom, five-bathroom abode after its $2.8m purchase in 2008.
SHIRVO’S FOLKS MOVE CLOSER
Teachers Jennifer and Phillip Shirvington, parents of Sunrise host Matt Shirvington, have bought a little closer to their son. The couple have spent $2.9m on a three-bedroom Mosman apartment.
They have sold at Wahroonga, where their renovated 1910 former station master’s cottage fetched $3,225,000. It wasn’t the home Shirvo grew up in.
Shirvo’s Mosman abode cost $7m in 2017.
ABBOTSBURY RECORD RESET
A new Abbotsbury trophy home has been sold for a record $4.6m, bettering the suburb record by $1m.
Blaz Dejanovic and Tony Fahma of Blaze Real Estate secured the sale of the five-bedroom, six-bathroom mansion off-market.
The U-shaped Province St residence, centred around a pool, features a lift from its eight-car garage.
The 629sq m holding cost $830,000 in 2021.
LOWY ADVISER SLASHES PRICE
Former Westfield executive Mark Ryan, who remains an adviser to the Lowy family, and his wife Deborah have relisted their four-level Paddington terrace with $11m hopes for its May 31 auction.
They had a marketing campaign last August when a record $16.5m was sought.
The Glenmore Rd terrace cost $2.52m in 2003. The couple have reportedly bought in Vaucluse for $8,825,000.
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