This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
AFTER 170 years of worship at the site, the Uniting Church in Australia Synod of Victoria and Tasmania has sold a major North Melbourne landholding in line with expectations of around $10 million.
Located on the fringe of Melbourne’s CBD, the 4,882 sqm site at 579-599 Queensberry Street and 51-61 Curzon Street encompasses an array of buildings, including the landmark 1879-built Gothic Revival Union Memorial Church building, home to Mark the Evangelist Church.
There’s also an eight-bedroom Manse built for the Church’s minister around 150 years ago, residential terrace homes and units, a commercial building and character buildings.
The General Residential-zoned property has three street frontages to Queensberry, Curzon and Elm Streets totalling over 200 metres.
JLL’s Jesse Radisich, Nick Peden, Josh Rutman and Mingxuan Li acted on behalf of The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) in the sale. Both the JLL agents and the UCA declined to comment on the price or the transaction details, but The Age has reported paid about $10 million for the property.
“The Uniting Church and the Mark the Evangelist Congregation are pleased to see the next stage of life for the church and the site now about to commence under new ownership, following widespread interest from multiple parties,” said Peter Thomas, UCA’s director, property services said
According to JLL, the scale of the offering, the premium North Melbourne location and the extensive existing buildings on site led to significant interest from a range of prospective purchasers, with 217 interested parties marking enquiries despite some of the complexities and challenges of the site from a heritage and environmental perspective.
“This transaction demonstrates that robust demand is in the market for significant landholdings with income and upside potential, and many active purchasers are not impacted or concerned by uncertainty around interest rates,” Radisich said.
