Developer Jean Nassif hoping for $100m for Mascot industrial site
Prominent Sydney developer Jean Nassif is eyeing up another super-sized property pay day after listing a 1.6ha parcel near Sydney Airport with price expectations of more than $100 million.
The offering of 146 and 154 O’Riordan Street in Mascot, a 1.64 hectare industrial site that could be developed into multi-storey warehousing or other uses, comes as Mr Nassif’s daughter, Ashlyn, resigned as a director of her father’s development firm, Toplace.
Ms Nassif, a lawyer, was arrested last month on fraud charges relating to the pre-sale of apartments at a Toplace development in Castle Hill. Mr Nassif has not been charged.
She resigned as a director of Toplace on March 7, corporate filings show.
Mr Nassif acquired the larger of the two Mascot properties, a 1.4ha site home to an industrial complex at 154 O’Riordan Street, for $32 million from Dexus in 2015, and then bolted on a smaller 2719 sq m site housing a small office building at 146 O’Riordan Street.
Held through an entity called JKN Park, Mr Nassif secured a permit for 96 hotel rooms and 444 serviced apartments with a 22-metre height limit.
About half of the site could be developed up to a height of 44 metres under a different proposal, which could, if approved increase the gross floor area to over 49,000 sq m.
The listing of the Mascot site follows Mr Nassif selling a Parramatta high-rise apartment site in 2021 for about $70 million to the build-to-rent platform set up by developer Tim Gurner and real estate financier Qualitas.
Also in 2021, he sold a 7.65 hectare logistics property in Western Sydney to Goodman Group for $140 million, generating a $75 million profit and sparking a social media storm when he posted a photo on Instagram of his wife and the $480,000 Lamborghini he had bought for her.
Colliers selling agents Michael Crombie and Trent Gallagher said the Mascot property could support many uses including multi-level industrial warehouses, commercial premises, or by taking advantage of the approved DA for a hotel and serviced apartments.
In addition, it could be retained as an income generating land bank: the existing industrial facilities are leased to tenants including Schindler Lifts and Daiwa Food Corporation which bring in $4.5 million in annual rent.
However, given near zero industrial vacancy rates in South Sydney, and its suitability for last-mile logistics and multi-storey warehousing (Goodman, Charter Hall and Logos all have multi-storey projects in South Sydney) it is expected to generate substantial interest from major logistics developers.
“It’s unusual to see a site of this scale for sale in such a desired location,” Mr Crombie said.
“The immediate proximity to Sydney Airport, Port Botany, Mascot Railway and the motorways will be integral to the end development of this site.”
The listing of the Mascot site follows orders in August by NSW Fair Trading that Toplace undertake remediation works at an apartment building at 11-15 Charles Street in Canterbury in Sydney’s inner west.
In 2020, Mr Nassif was identified as “Mr X”, the developer who was touted by William O’Dwyer as the saviour of apartment buyers who lost their money in the collapse of O’Dwyer’s Ralan Group.
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