Harry Triguboff buys St Hilliers North Ryde site with plans to build 330 apartments
Meriton boss Harry Triguboff has paid $25 million for a Macquarie Park development site in North Ryde, with plans for a $200 million apartment development.
The site at 88 Talavera Road, across the road from the Macquarie Shopping Centre and close to Macquarie University, was acquired from property developer St Hilliers.
St Hilliers had acquired it in 2007 for $23.5 million and had received development application approval for three A-grade, six-storey office towers covering 32,000 square metres costing $140 million as well as 4,000 square metres of open space.
St Hilliers decided to sell the site after a tenant for 85% of the proposed office development fell through.
It was valued at more than $30 million before the GFC.
Meriton plans to build 330 apartments across four towers, of which one will be a serviced apartment tower.
Triguboff faced competition from Lang Walker and Singapore’s Stamford Group to acquire the site, according to The Australian.
“I have been building in Ryde for 35 years. I have spent more time in Ryde than anywhere else,” said Triguboff following the acquisition.
Triguboff said the good thing about this site was that he could sell the residential apartments and keep the serviced apartments.
This purchase comes soon after his acquisition of a Chatswood development site, his first in the suburb in a decade, from Welles Thomas, a private property management and real estate company based in Chatswood
Triguboff paid $55 million to acquire the 4,323-square-metre site, situated between Thomas Street and Albert Street just off the Pacific Highway.
The site, currently the Thomas Street car park, last sold for $27.5 million in 2007.
It has been acquired from a private Australian company headed by Chinese owners, with the sale negotiated by Andrew Antonas of Matrix Property Group.
Antonas says the car park had been previously owned by Willoughby Council.
The site received DA approval in September 2010 for one 29-storey residential tower and one 21-storey commercial building.
Antonas says Meriton plans to build two 29-storey towers, one featuring around 200 apartments and the other featuring 225 five-star serviced apartments, meaning some work will need to be done “rejigging” the application.
Off-the-plan marketing of the Chatswood project is expected to commence mid-year.
The site, which has DA approval, will be used to build two 29-level towers involving more than 425 apartments, Meriton’s national sales manager says.
Meriton’s target market will range from investors seeking higher yields to owner- occupiers.
Meriton’s recent buy comes nearly a decade after its last project at Chatswood – Leura – a 125- apartment block located at the corner of Brown Street and the Pacific Highway, was completed in 2003.
The new developments will join Meriton’s portfolio of projects on Sydney’s north shore, including the 300-luxury apartment Alcove development at St Ives.