Jetty Surf founder 'Butch' Sadikay looking to build apartments on 'rare' South Yarra block
A year after paying $33 million for the spectacularly located Melbourne estate of late businessman Sir Clive McPherson, Jetty Surf founder Fadil “Butch” Sadikay is seeking to replace it with 17 high-end apartments.
Opposite the Royal Botanic Gardens in South Yarra’s Domain precinct, Mr Sadikay paid more than twice the advertised price for the “extremely rare” 2655-square-metre L-shaped holding of three neighbouring sites, divided by a laneway.
The property was owned for almost 50 years by McPherson family members and sold as part of the estate of Marion Page (formerly Marion Orme McPherson) who died in 2015.
Her father, Sir Clive, began his working career in Yarrawonga and was a leading Australian agriculturalist for 40 years until his death in 1958.
He held senior positions, including as managing director of Younghusband Limited, chairman of the Australian Wheat Board, and director of both the Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank.
The estate was formerly owned by the family of the late businessman Sir Clive McPherson. Photo: Supplied
Knighted in 1941, Sir Clive is reported to have regularly entertained former prime ministers Robert Menzies, Stanley Bruce and Joe Lyons. Former governor general Sir William Slim and the governor of Victoria, Sir Dallas Brooks were also said to be close acquaintances.
The redevelopment proposal of the former family compound will require the demolition of a historic home at 30 Anderson Street – considered one of Melbourne’s most valuable rows (and coincidentally the location of Mr Sadikay’s family home).
Along with a backyard block known as 25-29 Kurneh Place, this combined 1503-square-metre portion of the estate is now earmarked for a Robert Mills-designed, three-storey complex with 10 apartments.
The third piece of the estate, known as 216-218 Domain Road, includes a historic mansion, Prahran, which will be refurbished and extended to contain seven dwellings.
To turn a profit on the low-density proposal, it is expected Mr Sadikay will seek well over $2 million for off-the-plan apartments.
This shouldn’t be a problem to achieve, according to CBRE’s Mark Wizel, one of the selling agents who marketed the estate when Mr Sadikay bought it last year: the Domain precinct is one of the city’s most valuable, based on land rates per square metre, and is “populated by perhaps Melbourne’s largest concentration of high net worth individuals”.
An aerial view of the three portions of the South Yarra estate. Photo: Supplied
“A low density project is very appropriate for such a location,” Mr Wizel said. “What you don’t want in a location like this is to overbuild and risk devaluing the attraction to your target market.”
Of last year’s runaway sales campaign, which CBRE managed with Jellis Craig, Mr Wizel said “without wanting to use a property cliché, [the likes of this property] come to the market extremely rarely”.
“In some cases it might take only two bidders to drive a record price. In this case we had over 40 expressions of interest.
Coincidentally, the final piece of the Marion Page estate was listed for sale last month by agencies Pat Rice and Hawkins and Elders Real Estate. The 1994-hectare Tarramia farm, in Mulwala, NSW, is expected to sell for more than $10 million.
This is an updated version of the story which incorrectly said that Fadil Sadikay was the founder of Surf, Dive n Ski.
