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Capital Gain
The wealthy Maple-Brown family is selling two shops in leafy Woollahra with a combined estimated price tag of about $5 million.
The high-profile investors established their Maple-Brown Abbott funds management firm decades ago before selling the business in December 2024 to Antipodes, an affiliate of Pinnacle Investment Management. Pinnacle now has more than $20 billion in assets under management across four investment teams.
Selling agent Ben Vaughan of BresicWhitney East declined to give a price guide for the adjoining shops at 146 and 148 Queen Street. Similar buildings have sold individually for between $2 million and $3 million.
Title documents show the shops have been held by the family for about nine years. They are being sold together or separately. Both are occupied by tenants.
Woollahra is in the heart of Sydney’s upmarket eastern suburbs and has median household income of $3013 – 45 per cent higher than greater Sydney’s average.
Just up the road from the Maple-Brown’s property at 2a–14a Queen Street is the Centennial Flats.
The Spanish Mission style buildings, with its 10 apartments and four ground floor shops, is also for sale. It’s on the market with price expectations of about $16.5 million.
A private family company, Con Harris Investments, has owned the building on a 682-square-metre corner at Queen and Oxford Streets for more than 75 years.
James Masselos and Adam Droubi of Knight Frank have the listing.
Brand-new Dan
A newly constructed Dan Murphy’s in one of Sydney’s most tightly held lower North Shore suburbs has hit the market.
Private developer Central Element is selling the ground floor property at Neutral Bay as part of its $180 million Pienza development at 12 Waters Road.
The 1217-square-metre bottle shop comes with a 10-year lease to Endeavour Group generating rent of $993,600 per annum, plus additional income through its 47 basement car parks managed by InterPark.
No price guide was given for the bottle shop, but a recently built Dan Murphy’s at 718-728 Military Road in Mosman, two suburbs away that was owned by the ASX-listed Charter Hall group, sold in 2020 to a Sydney-based private investor for $13.25 million.
CBRE’s Yosh Mendis and Zomart He, along with Ray White Commercial North Shore’s Scott Stephens and Logan Grisaffe, are managing the sale.
And in nearby Cremorne, private investors English & Saunders are selling a commercial property at 261-263 Military Road for the first time in nearly 60 years.
The block accommodates a BMW showroom, display yard, and lower-level workshop and parking. It generates net annual income of $304,024, with 100 per cent of outgoings recovered by the tenant.
The site has a mixed-use zoning and 16 metre height limit, said Scott Stephens from Ray White Commercial North Shore, who is advising on the sale.
Budget travel
YHA Australia is expanding as it looks to take advantage of budget conscious travellers.
The organisation, a not-for-profit, is upgrading its existing hostels but any new purchases are reliant on funds from high-net-worth investors.
YHA is now Australia’s first owned and operated accommodation network to achieve Certified B Corporation status, meeting rising traveller expectations for sustainable travel and accommodation options.
Its site in The Rocks, Sydney, got a $9.7 million upgrade in early 2025 with rooms offering modern facilities but maintaining its traditional hostel offerings.
Paul McGrath, chief executive of YHA Australia said recently its primary focus is to “revitalise and modernise the guest experience, whilst continuing our commitment to affordable accommodation”.
Sydney’s hoteliers are preparing for the VIVID event next month. Adrian Williams, chief operating officer for Accor in the Pacific region, said last week’s AFL Gather Round in Adelaide set the bar high for special events, where all of Accor’s 13 hotels were at near capacity.
The NSW Minister for Tourism Steve Kamper told Capital Gain that the format for this year’s VIVID has changed with a streamlined 6.5 kilometre free Light Walk that will feature more than 40 installations across an unbroken route.
He said it will deliver a “more user-friendly and impactful visitor experience” stretching from Circular Quay and The Rocks through to Barangaroo, Cockle Bay and Darling Harbour.
“For the first time in its history, Vivid Sydney will come to life both day and night, activating Circular Quay with a selection of art installations available to the public 24/7, with other pillars delivering daytime theatre, expansive food experiences, talks and forums,” Kamper said.
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