Hudson House owners band together for sale

Mercedes Ruehl

Apr 16, 2015 – 12.00am

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The old truism about strength in numbers has proved true again as many of the owners of the separate floors of an ageing Sydney CBD office building in Macquarie Street band together to sell out to a residential developer for more than $120 million.

Demand for inner-city apartments is at unprecedented levels. Hudson House at 131 Macquarie Street, which boasts sweeping harbour views and sits opposite the Royal Botanic Gardens, has the potential to be converted into luxury units.

The 17-storey office building's owners, including property identity Phillip Wolanski, The Australian Hotels Association and the Thai embassy, have been considering a sale for several years, but now the majority of the strata owners have appointed CBRE's Nicholas Heaton and Josh Cullen to sell their floors as a residential development site.

Built in 1965, Hudson House was subdivided into whole floor strata offices in 1996. In 2013, Levels 1 to 7 and 9 to 13 were given development approval for 12 four-bedroom, whole-floor apartments. Since then, more floors have joined the project.

Mr Heaton said he expected strong interest from both local and offshore developers.

"Hudson house is likely to be the best CBD residential development site offered to the market in 2015," Mr Heaton said.

Mr Cullen said the property benefits from a premier Macquarie street location and uninterrupted views of Sydney harbour.

Sold separately, the floors could fetch about $5 million in total, sources said, but combined it could be above $8 million.

The approach has paid dividends for some homeowners in Sydney, although it can be a lengthy process. A group of eight residents in Epping had their homes individually valued in 2012 for about $1.2 million. Last year they netted more than three times that amount when their homes sold in one line to a developer.

As demand for inner-city living rises, there is a growing trend of older office buildings being converted into apartments. Gold Fields House, 227 Elizabeth Street, 115 Bathurst Street, 175 Liverpool Street and 338 Pitt Street are some of the traditionally commercial towers that have sold to Asian developers. Hudson House sits in a part of the city near Circular Quay that will be transformed over the coming years by major apartment projects.

Hudson House was given strata title after being bought by developer Tjeerd La Grouw, Richardson's Faxaboy Holdings and Richard Scheinberg's Gladlock for $25 million in 1995.

The 150-space car park alongside it sold for $10.45 million in 1998.