Long-term Manly Wharf lease for sale: could fetch $80M
The owners of the long-term Manly Wharf lease have put the lease up for sale.
The wharf has become a popular entertainment precinct with some of the suburb’s favourite eateries and a popular pub.
Given its popularity there is speculation by commercial property agents CBRE that the lease could sell for more than $80 million and will attract overseas interest.
Buyers should note that the structure is not for sale, only the lease.
The current leaseholder is eastern suburbs-based property developer Robert Magid, who has owned the lease since 1995, when the wharf needed a lot of work to be revitalised.
Since then, Magid’s company TMG Developments has turned the gateway wharf into one of Sydney’s most popular dining and entertainment hubs.
There are 20 tenancies including Hugo’s, the Manly Wharf Hotel (a.k.a. Wharf Bar), Sake, Queen Chow, El Camino and the Bavarian Bier Café.
Any sale could be helped by the NSW government’s plans to upgrade wharf 3, adjacent to the Manly Wharf Hotel. A proposal to demolish the nearby abandoned Sea Life Aquarium to provide more public open space, would also be of benefit.
Magid began a $9 million makeover of the wharf in 2016. At the time he told the Manly Daily that he would draw inspiration from New York’s South Street Seaport, San Francisco’s Sausalito and dining by the Thames in London.
“I can’t think of anywhere that is a better location than here,” Magid said. “When you look at the pier on a day like today, it rivals the best spots in the Mediterranean.
“You have got that turquoise blue water that is even cleaner than the Mediterranean, you have got super yachts coming through and people of all walks of life enjoying it.
“It has got an amazing atmosphere.”
Magid rejected previous plans to turn the wharf into a residential area.
Plans for sale of the leasehold will not affect ferry wharf operations to the Northern Beaches.
The “International Expressions of Interest campaign” closes in March 2023.
Jonathan Jackson - 13-12-22
