Heavyweights team up to buy Sydney Superyacht Marina
Private real estate group Markham and development heavyweight Lend Lease have teamed up to buy the Sydney Superyacht Marina, giving the pair a crucial sliver of Sydney’s Bays precinct.
The Baird government’s UrbanGrowth NSW has nominated the underdeveloped area as a key element of its plan to revitalise Sydney’s harbourside districts.
The harbourside holdings in the city’s inner west could eventually sit alongside the Barangaroo precinct, with the government this week flagging the construction of thousands of apartments at the Sydney Fish Market’s Pyrmont site.
Proposals rejected: NSW Government to go it alone at White Bay Power Station
Markham’s purchase of the well-known marina is likely to see the area revamped as the private company has long owned the adjacent Sydney Boathouse via an unlisted trust and has worked on plans with maritime tenants.
While the purchase from interests associated with private equity player Mark Carnegie and Sydney lawyer Andrew Robinson has only just been finalised, the purchasers of the near $20 million asset are understood to be working up a retail and restaurant-focused boulevard along the harbour.
The groups would not be drawn but their plans, which could see up to $80 million worth of development, centre around improving the marina and boat storage facilities and creating a low-rise complex supporting Sydney’s working harbour strategy.
I am personally committed to protecting and enhancing this important piece of Sydney’s working harbour
It is understood Lend Lease is invested in an unlisted trust that Markham will manage separately from its investment in the Sydney Boathouse.
But links between the properties will be improved, opening the area to the public.
The Sydney Superyacht Marina at Rozelle in Sydney.
“Rozelle Bay has a rich history and is an important fixture in Sydney’s maritime industry contributing to the NSW economy,” Markham Corporation managing director James Markham says. “As someone who is and has been involved in the local area for more than 10 years, I am personally committed to protecting and enhancing this important piece of Sydney’s working harbour.”
The existing superyacht marina is already undergoing a $30 million scheme to double the size of its berths as boat owners clamour to book anchorages.
Markham’s Sydney Boathouse is a $130 million development and includes a smaller marina, a dry-boat storage facility with space to store about 300 power boats up to 11m in length, office and retail space, and parking.
Lend Lease appears determined to build a presence in the area just months after UrbanGrowth NSW rejected all 13 proposals submitted to redevelop the nearby White Bay Power Station.
The developer teamed with Google but the state agency is in now exclusive talks to secure the tech giant as an anchor tenant for its own scheme.
Markham has long experience in complex inner urban sites in Sydney. Most notably it was lease holder of the Sydney IMAX Retail and Entertainment Complex at Darling Harbour.
It secured private firm Grocon as a partner and they conceived of The Ribbon complex before it sold to the developer, which is now pursuing a $730 million hotel and serviced apartment complex.
– with Lisa Allen
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
