Sydney’s Luna Park For Sale

Luna Park in Sydney has come to market for the first time in two decades.

The heritage-listed amusement park, which opened in 1935 and is one of Australia’s most recognisable attractions, is in Milsons Point on the Lower North Shore, in the shadow of another Sydney icon, the Harbour Bridge.

Industry insiders have been reported as tipping a sale price in the neighbourhood of $70 million.

On offer is the business, the buildings and long-term lease on the land, which is owned by the Luna Park Reserve Trust, a government agency.

Development potential is limited as the site must remain an entertainment precinct.

Luna Park underwent a $40-million upgrade and added new rides and experiences in 2020.

CBRE’s Simon Rooney, James Douglas and Paul Ryan are handling the sale of the park for owner global investment firm Brookfield via an expressions-of-interest campaign that is due to close in late August.

Rooney said the floorspace of the amusement park would allow more opportunities to drive income growth through the addition of more experiences and expansion of its food and beverage offering.

The park features 17 amusement rides, the heritage-listed Coney Island, and 7000sq m of building floorspace including Sydney’s Immersive Big Top and the 1935-built Crystal Palace, as well as a 389-space carpark.

“Luna Park is more than just an amusement park. It is the beating heart of Sydney with an impressive track record of long-running events including Halloscream, New Year’s Eve and collaborations with key city-wide festivals such as Sydney Festival, Vivid and Lunar New Year,” Rooney said.

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Luna Park Sydney chief executive John Hughes said that the venue had been important to the city’s “social and culture fabric”.

The park is expected to continue to operate as normal during the sales process.

In the 1990s, after failing to meet deadlines by its then leaseholder, control over the famous amusement park was taken by the government through The Luna Park Reserve Trust.

However, due to financial difficulties the park had to close its doors in 1996.

In 1999 Metro Edgley Group (consisting of Metro Edgley, Multiplex Facilities Management and a group of private investors) was awarded the contract by the NSW government to redevelop the park.

In 2007 Multiplex decided to sell its lease to one of the undeveloped sections of the park for about $7 million on the condition that profits should be invested back in the amusement park.

Canadian investor Brookfield acquired the park as part of its acquisition of builder Multiplex in 2007.