Probuild’s NSW headquarters which was former Mambo site sells for $10m at auction
83-85 McLachlan Ave, Darlinghurst, was once the home of Mambo. More recently it was the Probuild NSW HQ.
The funky warehouse-style office of collapsed construction firm Probuild has sold for a double-digit million price at auction with the proceeds going to creditors owed up to $50m.
The administrator, Deloitte, had made a vendor bid of $10m for the building at 83-85 McLachlan Ave, Darlinghurst, which was matched by the buyer.
Auctioneer Damien Cooley then slammed down the gavel.
The Colliers team of Miron Solomons, Matt Pontey and Matthew Meynell, who had the exclusive listing, couldn’t name the family that purchased it.
But they said they already operated a family business office in the east, but needed more space and parking.
Some of the remaining office space will be leased out.
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The interiors were refurbished in 2009.
The buyer plans to operate an office for the family business in some of the space.
The building offered a nettable lease area of 682sq m with 12 on-site parking spaces.
Probuild bought the building in 2007 for $5,335,000 from Dare Jennings and Andrew Rich who’d run their iconic clothing label Mambo from there. Before that, it was a gallery.
Probuild refurbished the building in 2009.
At the time of Probuld’s collapse in late February, it was one of Australia’s largest construction companies with $5b worth of projects nationally and an annual turnover of more than $2b.
In March, RealCommercial reported that NSW construction firm Roberts Co had agreed to buy Probuild’s operations in Victoria.
An opening offer of $7m was rejected at the auction.
The same bidder then offered $9m, which Cooley accepted.
At last Thursday’s auction for the NSW headquarters, Cooley had rejected an opening offer of $7m.
The same person offered $9m, which was accepted. There were then a couple of $100,000 bids, followed by bids ranging between $10,000 and $50,000.
There were 45 bids in total and six bidders turned up on the day, but only three participated.
It was a two-horse race after 30 bids when the price reached $9.7m. The buyer had a representative acting for him.
The agents had dealt with 200 inquiries and issued 18 contracts.
