After spending $25M and five years amalgamating eight sites in South Yarra, John Matthies has opted to sell the nearly 8,000sqm offering, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Mr Matthies, managing director of the family-run Australian Aged Care Group Pty Ltd (AACG), had planned to re-develop the site into a ‘six-star’ six-storey aged care facility. In 2015, he told the Australian Financial Review the RAD for the 80 units would be $1.8M plus.
The site overlooking the Yarra River will see the demolition of the Saint Cloud mansion (pictured) which Mr Matthies bought for $12M in 2012. The suburb’s largest private land holding, the mansion played a starring role in the Russell Crowe film Romper Stomper which showed it being robbed and trashed.
Mr Matthies’ parents Keith and Betty were veterans of the aged care industry in Melbourne, building some of its first purpose-built facilities in 1970s and early 1980s. Specialising in luxury, hotel-style developments, his previous projects include Kew Gardens Aged Care which opened in 2010 and Banfields Aged Care in 2013.
The story also brings to mind another high-profile sale that raised eyebrows in 2014 when Summitcare’s director Peter Wohl bought property developer Ron Medich’s waterfront Point Piper mansion in Sydney for over $37M. Mr Medich is currently awaiting trial for the 2009 murder of his one-time business associate Michael McGurk.
Pictured: Saint Cloud Mansion. Credit: Domain.
