Charity's 13-hectare North Rocks site in Sydney to sell for $200 million
The Royal Institute of Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC) is selling a significant 13-hectare landholding in North Rocks, north-west of the Sydney CBD, close to areas that have become thriving apartment hubs.
The charity, understood to be the oldest in the country, is listing the site at 361-365 North Rocks Road with price expectations of around $200 million. It has owned the site for 60 years.
North Rocks is close to Carlingford and Epping, two suburbs that have had a lot of new dwelling development in the past five years.
The charity is in turn moving to Macquarie University’s Australian Hearing Hub to form a cluster with other similar hearing and vision-impaired health services at the university.
Monies raised from the sale of the site will be invested in new campus buildings, chief executive Chris Rehn said.
The charity will not be moving away until 2020, a term that will be factored into the sale of the site.
Colliers International’s Jon Chomley, who is managing the sale of the site, said it took two years to put the brownfield site on the market and is already fielding inquiries.
He is marketing the site with colleagues Guillaume Volz, Steam Leung and Robert McCuaig.
The site is close to amenities such as the North Rocks Shopping Centre across the road, which has a Coles, Kmart, Aldi and 86 specialty shops.
Another appealing factor is the site’s proximity to North Rocks Public Primary School and the second Sydney CBD, Parramatta is just over 5 kilometres away.
There are several commercial buildings on the site including schools for the vision and the hearing impaired such as the RIDBC Thomas Pattison School and the Alice Betteridge School.
There are also buildings for early intervention services, therapy and allied health and Cochlear Implant programs.
Considered far when the charity bought the site 60 years ago “for a few thousand pounds”, North Rocks, 24 kilometres from the Sydney CBD, is now considered one of the more popular and cheaper areas to buy a home.
