Christian Brothers list 150-year-old Parkville estate
The Christian Brothers have put a historic Parkville estate on the market as the religious order moves to realise its remaining property assets.
The 7119 sqm Treacy Centre at 116–156 The Avenue is being offered with vacant possession, with c$25 million price hopes.
With three principal buildings opposite Royal Park, close to the University of Melbourne and Melbourne’s hospital and biomedical precinct, it is being targeted to other occupiers.
Developers are also expected to look in.
Development outcomes could include residential, healthcare, education, offices and tourist accommodation.
Colliers’ Ben Baines, Jozef Dickinson and Philip Heberling are representing the Trustees of the Christian Brothers and Christian Brothers Oceania Province.
Inner-city estate
The estate comprises the Victorian residences Barbiston (pictured, top) and Carclew – which the church bought in 1965 – alongside the Mt Sion accommodation building.
The buildings are configured as offices, function rooms, accommodation and aged-care.
Zoned General Residential, the holding has about 91 metres of frontage to The Avenue, 81m to Walker Street and 91m to Miles Lane.
This pocket if Parkville is about four kilometres north of Melbourne’s CBD (continues below).
Church sell-down
The listing comes as the Christian Brothers work to realise their remaining property assets to help meet liabilities to creditors, including survivors of historical abuse.
In June, the order announced plans to sell about 36 properties across Australia, then valued at c$216m.
It said the proceeds would not be enough to meet the full value of its compensation obligations, which have been estimated at c$774m.
The process was subsequently revised – in July the Christian Brothers and Edmund Rice Education Australia agreeing to develop a new creditors’ scheme intended to provide a better outcome for creditors, including abuse survivors.
Under the arrangement, proceeds from property sales would be placed in a fund controlled by scheme administrators.
The revised framework provides for creditors with settled monetary claims, including abuse claimants with outstanding settlements or judgments, to be paid in full once sufficient funds have been raised.
The Parkville estate is among the properties being brought to market as the order works through that process. The Dom Bosco Hostel and Youth Centre in nearby Brunswick is another.
Earlier this year the church sold a former retreat centre at 7 Amberley Way, Lower Plenty, for $4.6m.
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