Neighbour snaps up historic Melbourne church
St Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church has bought an inner-city Melbourne church less than two years after redeveloping its nearby campus.
The congregation paid $2.8 million for the ex-Christ Church at 76 McCracken Street, Kensington, about 100 metres from its existing house of worship on the corner of Epsom and Kensington roads.
The 1288 square metre site contains a heritage church, built in 1889 as the Wesleyan, designed by architect Alexander Eleazar Duguid.
That property previously housed one of seven organs exported to Victoria in the 1860s by London organ builder John Courcelle.
The holding also includes a large two-storey red brick building exposed to Epsom Rd, part of which has in recent years been used as a yoga studio.
The property was sold by the Uniting Church in Australia (Victoria and Tasmania), following the closure of the Christ Church Kensington congregation
The deal comes three months since realestatesource.com.au reported the Multicultural Youth Centre acquired part of the former Kraft headquarters at Broadmeadows to expand its nearby education campus.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, Penleigh & Essendon Grammar bought two dwellings to expand its Moonee Ponds school – one for $7.1m.
St Mary’s expands in Kensington
St Mary’s extended its main Kensington campus, known as 1-11 Epsom Rd, in 2024 (continues below).
That project retained an original church but added education areas, a childcare centre and basement parking.
The not-for-profit had previously proposed a more ambitious redevelopment but was thwarted by council.
The McCracken St site was also promoted for its development upside, zoned Activity Centre.
It is walking distance to both Kensington and Macaulay stations and a popular strip retail precinct too.
Stonebridge Property Group’s Andrew Milligan, Lucas Daffy and Chao Zhang were the agents.
Kensington shares the same postcode as Flemington.
This pocket of the suburb is about four kilometres north-west of Melbourne’s CBD.
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