Dentists, lawyers, cleaners battle for Darlinghurst warehouse

Only at an auction in inner-city Sydney would you find lawyers, event coordinators, cosmetic dentists, bankers, gallery operators, cleaners, investors and homebuyers going toe to toe.

And it was an events company that won out in a battle to secure a prime corner building in Darlinghurst, paying $6 million for the double-storey property at 158A-162 Crown St.

With 15 of the 28 registered bidders making a play throughout the auction, the price soared well beyond expectations, with agents originally predicting the warehouse-style property would sell for between $4 million and $4.5 million.

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But D’Ettorre Real Estate’s Dominic D’Ettorre says demand from owner-occupiers bumped up the value.

“It was way over the owner’s expectations, as well as ours,” D’Ettorre says.

“About four owner-occupiers battled it out at the end. It was an events company that bought it. They want it for their corporate headquarters.”

The Crown St property sold for $6 million.

“It’s one of those buildings that has the X-factor. It has a special energy around it.”

The building sits on a 183sqm block of land and has 350sqm of floor space, while enjoying three street frontages and off-street parking for two cars.

D’Ettorre says Darlinghurst is becoming increasingly sought-after as a first port of call for businesses looking to relocate from the CBD.

“It’s a well exposed intersection and a good place to have exposure for a business, and being a 10-minute walk from the CBD makes it very attractive,” he says.

“A lot of the CBD operators who just don’t want to be in the CBD, but (want to be) in the fringe, came down to have a look at this.”

Darlinghurst megasite up for grabs

Hot on the heels of the Crown St sale, a huge Darlinghurst mixed-use island site is now on the market, with developers, hotel operators and aged care facilitators expected to come calling.

The owner of a block of apartments has joined forces with the owner of a neighbouring site that was formerly owned by the Catholic Church, in order to create one giant 1288sqm block of potential land.

The site is an amalgamation of a number of Darlinghurst properties.

The part of the site at 52 Francis St has 15 strata-titled apartments, 14 of which are owned by the one owner, while 40-50 Francis St features the lion’s share of the land, at 870sqm, and has a number of buildings including a four-storey office block, an old bible hall and two terrace homes.

D’Ettorre is marketing the properties and says the owners are hoping to sell them one line, but are open to selling them separately. He says the options for the site are many, with a number of industries already showing interest.

Part of the property was formerly owned by the Catholic Church.

“It’s an exciting site, it’s B4 mixed use, so it could be aged care, medical use, hotel, student accommodation, corporate headquarters, a mix of retail, commercial, residential, so it’s a very good zoning,” D’Ettorre says.

The property is to be sold via expressions of interest.