Old Sydney Town has been sold for more than $15 million

Due to a confidential agreement, CBRE selling agents Peter Vines, Ben Byford, Victor Sheu and Peter Mangraviti could not confirm the price or disclose the buyer’s identity.

Mr Sheu said the property “definitely” sold for what the vendor, Warwick International Hotels president and founder Richard Chiu, was expecting.

He said that the buyer “did not need FIRB (Foreign Investment Review Board) approval”, which is required for offshore purchasers.

“They are looking at keeping the existing zoning because during the entire campaign we had other people looking at potentially changing the use of the land and stuff like that. I think they’re actually going to adapt to exactly what it is,” he said.

Locals want the Old Sydney Town theme park to be reestablished. Photo: Supplied

Apart from one block in the property on the border, which is zoned E2 Environmental Conservation and cannot be developed, the remainder of the property is E4 Environmental Living.

“The potential is whatever’s allowable on E4 land. It could be tourism, a hotel, a golf course – anything that’s more recreation and tourism-based.

“Basically that’s what the intention of the original Old Sydney Town was. Or they could use it as a farm.”

Locals had been campaigning for eight years for the theme park to be reinvented, forming a petition with 11,000 signatures in 2016, but struggled to gain political support.

The property is made up of five adjoining parcels, including the Australian Reptile Park across 5.4 hectares, and former Old Sydney Town on 25 hectares. The remaining 89 hectares wrap around both sites and is used as a farm.

The Australian Reptile Park has had a lease on the site since 1996 and still operates today.

The company that operated Old Sydney Town sold the entire site for $2,615,000 in 2000, Domain Group records show.

The agents received more than 200 inquiries and at least 20 groups expressed serious interest in the property.

Mr Sheu said that while there were people enquiring about the land purely because of its high profile, developers and investors were attracted to the land size and zoning.

“There are a lot of large parcels out there that you can’t do anything with, so because of the fact that (developers can) potentially alter the existing property or add value to the land – that’s probably the attraction point.”

Mr Byford said a mix of people had been thinking of different uses for the property.

“The (Central Coast) Council had a look at it, so did Tony Denny, a local developer up the Coast,” he said.

“There was residential, there were theme parks, wave parks, personal use as acreages, you name it, we had the whole lot. We had people looking at industrial developments.

“It was just such a huge piece of land; it’s untouched land so close to Sydney and it literally backs on to the industrial area there.”

It was previously reported that the owner was willing to rebuild Old Sydney Town if the local council rezoned other lots of the property for residential and commercial development to fund the project, though the council received no such application.

The theme park opened on Australia Day in 1975 with then prime minister Gough Whitlam coming along to support the launch.

It closed in 2003 because of financial losses, said to be up to $600,000 a year.