Mansion and hotel site sales bag $30m

THE Deague family’s Asian Pacific Building Corporation has sold a development site in Daly Street, South Yarra, and the historic Airlie mansion on St Kilda Road, for more than $30 million.

Details of the purchase price and the buyer are confidential. However, land in Forrest Hill, where 8-10 Daly Street is, has been selling for about $10,000 per square metre, and the Daly Street site is more than 3000 sq m. APBC was looking to sell Airlie mansion for more than $8 million. ”We are very pleased with the final result,” said APBC chief executive William Deague.

Mark Wizel and Andrew Dawkins of CB Richard Ellis negotiated both sales.

Mr Deague said the sales were in line with the group’s long-term strategy to expand its art series hotels. The Daly Street site had been earmarked to be an art hotel named after Brett Whiteley, and is behind The Olsen art hotel.

”We are actively sourcing sites for our boutique hotels in the northern end of Sydney’s CBD, Brisbane and Perth as well as doing some investigation on the Chelsea Hotel in New York,” he told BusinessDay.

APBC has bought the former Highways building in Adelaide – 18,000 sq m over 10 floors in the suburb of Walkerville – and has received a planning permit for 400 apartments. ”We intend to commence construction in the first half of next year,” Mr Deague said.

APBC withdrew Kings Business Park on Kings Way from sale earlier this year after receiving expressions of interest of $119 million and plans to build 400 apartments there, in addition to the 827 apartments at Bell City in Preston.

Airlie mansion at 452 St Kilda Road was once the home of prime minister Stanley Bruce, who led the country from 1923 to 1929.

Built in 1891, Airlie was eminent when St Kilda Road was revered as the address of Melbourne’s wealthiest aristocrats and home to some of the city’s most grandiose residential real estate. Most of those homes were demolished in the past half-century, but Airlie survived.

APBC paid $12 million for the property in 2007 and lavishly restored the mansion. On land behind Airlie, it developed the Blackman Hotel, an 18-level, 209-unit tower that opened this year.