St. Vinnies nets $11m-plus for Brookvale site

Charity organisation St. Vincent De Paul Society NSW has sold its Brookvale hub before signing a short-term lease to continue operating there.

The Catholic charity, which has operated a second-hand store out of the Pittwater Rd property for decades, handed over the keys to a local private investor for more than $11 million.

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St Vincent De Paul will now lease the property – which is zoned to allow for retail on the ground floor and apartments above – and continue running the shop while searching for an alternative site.

The sale price of over $11 million is a significant premium to their expectations

Current investor interest in Sydney commercial properties, particularly those with a mixed-use zoning, is understood to have played a significant part in St. Vinnies’ decision to put the property on the market late last year, after a strategic review of the organisation’s New South Wales property portfolio by Marco Plan Dimasi.

Colliers International agent Mitch Noonan, who ran the sales campaign with Henry Burke, indicated the potential selling price was too good for the charity to pass up.

“Due to favourable market conditions, we saw this as an opportune time for St. Vincent de Paul Society NSW to capitalise on the zoning of this holding which, in turn, will now allow them to recycle capital into other areas of their organisation,” Noonan says.

St Vincent De Paul Society has netted more than $11m from the sale of its Brookvale property.

“The sale price of over $11 million is a significant premium to their expectations, which was driven by a combinantion of leveraging the site’s upside through a highly competitive EOI campaign.”

The 2290sqm site lies just 100m north of Westfield Warringah Mall, 5km from Manly Beach and 15km north of Sydney’s CBD.

St. Vincent De Paul applied five years ago to convert the site into a charity shop, warehouse and office, with 57 affordable apartments above that it could rent to people in need.

Due to favourable market conditions, we saw this as an opportune time for St. Vincent de Paul Society NSW to capitalise on the zoning of this holding

But Warringah Council knocked the plan was on the head, deeming the site unsuitable for residential apartments.

Noonan says the new owner intends to maintain the property in its current form while St Vinnies continues to lease it, but has a longer-term plan to develop it.