By Anthony Segaert and Ben Cubby
The new buyer of the dilapidated Italian Forum in Sydney’s inner west would be able to build high-rise apartments over part of the venue under a government plan to add more than 700 homes to a section of Parramatta Road and Norton Street in Leichhardt.
Development company Redstone, which bought elements of the forum from an Italian community organisation for $11 million, is keeping its plans for the site secret but the Herald understands it has a series of options to recoup its investment by further development on the site.
The Italian Forum in Leichhardt has recently been sold.Credit: Kate Geraghty
The company, which has been working on plans for the site for four years, intends to retain the forum’s cultural facilities, including a community theatre.
The $11 million price tag paid by Redstone represents a 293 per cent mark-up on the $2.8 million that Italian community group Co.As.It paid for the forum in 2014, despite the site falling further into disrepair in the intervening nine years.
A state government policy to “revitalise” Parramatta Road has subsequently revised building heights above the forum and some surrounding properties, allowing for high-rise construction in parts of the low-rise suburb for the first time.
The plans allow for buildings of up to 23 metres high in the airspace above the existing theatre, which opens onto the forum’s public plaza.
The Italian Forum, the main S section on this map, is under plans from the state government to build up accommodation in the area.Credit: Inner West Council
Redstone is owned by developer Robert Patterson, a little-known director of several companies with the word Redstone in their titles.
They include Kann Finch Redstone, a company formed after major architecture firm Kann Finch went into liquidation last July. Kann Finch was involved in major apartment developments in Bondi, Glebe and Zetland as well as designing office towers in Dubai, Ho Chi Minh City and Kabul.
Patterson bought the Pickled Possum karaoke bar in Neutral Bay last year in an attempt to “resuscitate a great business” – but he refused to name himself, insisting local media refer to him only as “Possum Bob”.
The mayor of Inner West Council, Darcy Byrne, slammed a lack of transparency around the sale of the site after the Herald revealed it last Wednesday.
Robert Patterson will be the new owner of the rundown Italian Forum.Credit: Kate Geraghty / Mosman Collective
Byrne called on Redstone to “openly and transparently engage with the community about their plans for the site”.
Byrne said Co.As.It’s initial announcement of the sale “did not include a strong enough public commitment to reinvesting the funds from the sale into community services”.
“It is my firm view that every cent of the funds from the sale must be reinvested into community services and facilities,” he said.
Inner West Council confirmed the government’s revised strategy to allow extra building heights for the forum precinct meant it could be further developed.
“It is theoretically possible to take up this additional floor space as residential apartments without ‘rezoning’,” a council spokesperson said.
Thomas Camporeale, the general manager of Co.As.It, said the $8.2 million profit the group made would be used to repay debts the not-for-profit had accumulated.
“What [the sale] means for us is ... we can retire debt over other assets,” he said. “Our financial records are public and we do have some debt.
“And we can invest any surplus into our core activities – into aged care, compliance activities and increased activities for our community.”
Financial documents lodged with the charities commission show Co.As.It has about $6.9 million in liabilities, which include items such as debts and employee benefits – but has balanced them out with $32 million in assets.
The forum, given to the Italian community by Neville Wran’s state government in 1988, had an initial burst of prosperity in the 1990s.
But most of the restaurants surrounding the plaza have now been closed for many years, few people pass through the plaza and some of the buildings have fallen into disrepair.
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