Princeton Unveils $40m Balmain Warehouse Redevelopment

Sydney-based investment house Princeton is readying plans to convert a dilapidated 1930s warehouse in Sydney’s inner west into a $40-million terrace development. 

Princeton, led by joint directors George Gadallah and Craig Anderson, purchased the 960sq m site at 73-75 Beattie Street on the Balmain peninsula for $12.3 million in April.

The long-abandoned warehouse, nestled between Birchgrove and Rozelle and only 5km from Sydney CBD, began as Derrin Brothers’ grocery stores. 

The building’s use has been varied since that business vacated in the 1950s and it was most recently used as an art gallery.

Gadallah said the acquisition of the Balmain site had been an exciting leap forward for the business in the highly competitive inner-west market and that the addition provided the perfect step for their rapidly growing investment portfolio in Sydney.

“Balmain is one of Sydney’s most in-demand suburbs,” Gadallah said.

“It continues to outperform the wider market due to government infrastructure announcements such as WestConnex and Sydney Metro West, as well as its proximity to amenities in the CBD, strong demographic and lack of land supply.”

The new residential development will be a welcome addition to the affluent suburb of Balmain, which has seen a steady increase in property prices over the past five years. 

According to Corelogic, the suburb enjoyed a growth rate of 19.8 per cent during the past 12 months to push the current median sale price to $2.7 million.

▲ The ageing warehouse in Balmain. Image: Corelogic

Construction is earmarked to commence in the first quarter of 2023. The existing warehouse will be redeveloped into five three-bedroom terraces and a New York loft-style four-bedroom penthouse. 

Financing for the project will be provided by the group’s construction funding arm, the Princeton Mortgage Fund.

“This development will offer home buyers dynamic, terrace-style living with unparalleled views of Sydney’s world-famous harbour, with each terrace providing a separate home office or rumpus room above basement carparking,” Gadallah said.

“It’s going to be exciting to see this project come to life over the coming months and years, and cement itself as a crown jewel of the inner west.”

Anderson, formerly chief executive of Ashington Group for more than a decade, and Gadallah, who previously headed up property finance at St George Bank, founded the non-bank lender Princeton Mortgage Fund in 2012.

Princeton has completed eight residential developments across Sydney since 2012 with its most recent, a 161-apartment project in Villawood, winding up in February.

It marks a busy year for the investment house after it broke ground on two boutique projects in Botany and Blakehurst, worth a combined value of $73 million, earlier this year.

The Botany project, at 1-5 Rancom Street and 1637-1647 Botany Road, includes the construction of 36 apartments and five retail shops with an end value of $38 million, while its other project, at 6-8 Vaughan Street, will comprise 32 apartments with an end value of $35 million.

It is also advanced on a $60-million apartment project at 134-138 Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach with completion later this year.

That development, designed by MHND Union and interiors by Jo Lawless, of Lawless and Meyerson, will comprise eight high-end apartments, two single-level penthouses and ground floor retail.