Strategic Blackwattle Bay site listed for online auction after Chinese developer sells
A prized Blackwattle Bay development site, with jetty, near the Sydney Fish Markets has been scheduled for an online auction next Tuesday.
The 2988 sqm Bank Street holding, currently utilised for fish freezing storage, was recently bought off market by a private local investment syndicate.
The previous owner, the Chinese developer Dahua sold mid-year after its controversial mixed use development plans for the precinct drew a backlash from the NSW government.
"At 11am on Tuesday 17th, a reserve price will be uploaded and a starting bid logged," the auctionworks.net.au auctioneer David Scholes said.
The bidding will close at 1pm Wednesday, unless there is last minute further bidding.
"All interested parties will need to register with the agents and provide sufficient identification to allow them to select a bidder’s number and compete," Mr Scholes said.
Competitive bidding is expected as Blackwattle Bay is the crown jewel in the NSW Government’s Urban Growths renewal plans for a waterfront tourist precinct.
While Urban Growths' Bays Market masterplan has yet been released, work on the foreshore walk is scheduled to commence in early 2016.
The nearby Sydney Fish Market land will be up for tender in March next year.
The site for auction, which sits between Poulos Bros and Hymix, has been listed as a place of state significant development under the State and Regional Development SEPP with the minister as the consent authority rather than City of Sydney Council.
The existing controls allow hotels but developers are likely to seek mixed residential usage.
"The short auction deadline is not ideal, but the option to purchase is a live prospect," the Deans Property listing agent, Robert Deans said.
"It is a great opportunity alone or as part of a broader scale redevelopment," he said. Any redevelopment of the nearby fish market must be approved by the SFM Merchants and Tenants.
The Labor State Government started the Bays Precinct consultation and the Liberal Government appointed Urban Growth as the coordinating agency.
The sales brochure point to an Urban Growth document that indicates more density and higher planning controls was possible for the site.
"It appears from the captured image that it is proposed that the building on the subject land will be a 14 storey building," says the auction marketing.
"This is speculative and interested parties should make their own assessments," it said.
Most of the Blackwattle Bay waterfront is government-owned, but Jin Huiming's Dahua Group paid $17.5 million to buy the site from Bidvest last year.
The Dahua Group on-sold the site to the current vendors, Fishbank Development Corporation in June this year, according to a caveat on the title, but the delayed settlement sale has not yet been finalised.
Mr Jin, 63, previously was ranked by Forbes as the 36th richest person in China a decade ago when Dahua was ranked in China's top 10 real estate companies.