Annandale warehouse space sold by The Block's Julian Cress
As the scaffolding comes down from St Kilda's Gatwick Hotel, the location of next month's series of The Block, its executive producer Julian Cress has formally cut ties with Sydney.
The buyer of his redundant Annandale warehouse paid a record $4,275,000 through McGrath agent Damien West.
The space, which failed to sell at its March auction, had come with a price guide of $4.5 million.
Cress inherited the Johnstone Lane warehouse from his late father, the Archibald award-winning artist Fred Cress.
The prior top price for a converted warehouse in Annandale sat with the $3.7 million paid last June by fellow artist Jonathan Newton, the son of Britain’s Gravity Media Group boss John Newton.
Julian Cress commissioned architect Julian Brenchley and Block designer Darren Palmer to undertake the recent conversion which was recognised with the 2015 MBA's Excellence in Housing Award.
Set at the end of a laneway, the home has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a ground floor gallery.
The warehouse features polished concrete, exposed brick and soaring ceilings, interlaced with exposed steel and timber trusses.
There's an open plan upper level integrated with a private rooftop terrace.
Cress and wife Sarah have been based in Albert Park after The Block became more permanently based in Melbourne.
Over the years Cress became critical of nitpicking Sydney council approvals in his pursuit of development sites for the top rating Channel 9 show.
He has been executive producer of the hit show since its first series in 2003 where they launched with its renovation a block of apartments in Bondi.
Cress sold to Andrew Parker, the Qantas executive for government, industry and international affairs, who also was a board member of Australians for Equality during the gay marriage debate.
Parker recently sold his Potts Point apartment to Tom Dery, the former worldwide chairman of ad agency M&C Saatchi, for $4.55 million.
The purchase comes after Dery sold his luxury 1890s Paddington home for $5.1 million late last year.
This article first appeared in The Sunday Telegraph.