Double Bay renewal draws Neil Perry office and Melbourne businessman Paul Fridman
Neil Perry is moving his admin office closer to restaurant Margaret in Double Bay.
Top restaurateur Neil Perry is so enamoured with the recent regeneration of Sydney’s Double Bay he has sold out of his Martin Place office digs to move his entire administrative operations to the burgeoning eastern suburbs heartland.
Perry and his business partner have just trousered a hefty profit from the sale of their strata offices near Martin Place after purchasing the suite for $730,000 in 2017.
Despite the popularity of the work-from-home phenomenon, the pair sold their 750sq m suite fronting 84 Pitt St for $1.2m at an auction on March 1.
“I am moving all my operations to Double Bay,” Perry told The Australian. “The suite housed all the guys who look after my restaurant Margaret there.”
“Why Double Bay? Because I have a really successful business there. I am in Double Bay 24/7,” Perry said.
Neil Perry inside his new restaurant Margaret in Double Bay. Picture: Nikki Short
Perry opened his first sole-owned restaurant, Margaret, in Double Bay’s Bay St in June last year at the height of one of the worst Covid outbreaks. Today, the restaurant is so popular it is booked out for its lunch and dinner services weeks ahead.
Despite his move to the suburbs, Perry reckons CBDs will quickly return to popularity given that NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet is pushing hard to reinvent them.
“It will take two to three months, but fingers crossed we get our cities back early,” Perry said.
Double Bay is undergoing a renewal.
Melbourne businessman Paul Fridman recently snapped up the area’s InterContinental Hotel in a bid to convert it into luxury apartments and the Fortis group has purchased about six sites in the suburb’s key streets for major residential developments.
In one such nearby play, former rag trader turned developer Danny Avidan has just launched his Piper project in Point Piper that he is developing with Fortis. The project is opposite the exclusive Cranbrook school.
In September last year, developer Top Spring Australia also bought up a prime site in the Sydney enclave for $94m. It picked up the low-rise Double Bay Plaza retail site at 19-27 Cross St and will develop a luxury apartment and retail project, aimed at capitalising on the broadbased rise in eastern suburbs real estate.
Top Spring also has a site in Elizabeth Bay that it bought from SHMH Group and where the construction of luxury apartments are under way.
Others are also active in the eastern suburbs. JDH Capital, which is behind the redevelopment of Sydney’s Sirius building, bought the Vibe Hotel in Rushcutters Bay for about $125m, and is selling apartments.
Residential specialist The Agency co-founder Ben Collier predicts that many traditionally commercial buildings will be transformed into high-end residences. He cites The Pacific Bondi Beach, where a hotel that was past its prime became one of Sydney’s most desirable addresses.
The rise in eastern suburbs property values has also spilt over into retail assets. In one of the latest plays, art dealer Vivienne Sharpe is selling the boutique Queens Court retail complex in Sydney’s exclusive Woollahra Village for more than $40m.
The centre sits at the intersection of Queen and Moncur streets and has a mix of seven boutique and luxury tenants around a central outdoor courtyard and anchored by the Luxe Cafe.
CBRE’s Simon Rooney, James Douglas and Gemma Isgro are handling the site, with the Woollahra holding billed as a centre of fashion, arts and antique trade in Sydney’s east.
“Occupier and investor interest will see this as an opportunity to invest in one of Australia’s most prestigious, affluent and tightly held locations,” Mr Rooney said.
The east is on the rise.
