No bids from BT for Fitzroy abode of Sydney heiress Betty Saunders-Klimenko
The former 1860-built Bible Christian Church in Gore Street, Fitzroy - back on the market just 16 months after its last bullish auction - failed to attract any bids at its onsite weekend auction.
It last sold in June 2012 for $3.41 million to the Sydney shopping centre heiress Betty Saunders-Klimenko, easily exceding its $3 million 2012 reserve price.
Photos of Betty with her late father, John Saunders were on the living room shelves during the recent open for inspections.
John Saunders, who died in 1997 aged 75, was one of Australia's wealthiest men and most generous philanthropists.
Liberated from the German Dornau concentration camp, Saunders arrived in Sydney in 1949 and opened a sandwich shop at Town Hall station, where he met a delivery boy and fellow emigre, Frank Lowy.
They opened a Blacktown delicatessen and then the duo undertook their first development, a shopping centre in Blacktown, in 1958. Westfield Holdings Ltd listed on the stock exchange in 1960 and the long business relationship between Saunders and Lowy ended in 1986 when Saunders sold much of his 20 per cent stake.
The weekend auction saw a $2.95 million vendor bid. No reserve price was disclosed to the crowd gathered outfront of the building which was converted 10 years ago into a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a six-car garage.
However the subsequent weekend APM auction results gave the reserve as $3.41 million.
The AFL football commentator and farmer Brian Taylor attended the auction with family members but "BT" did not place any bid before driving off in his dusty Sahara land cruiser.
Its been reported that football keeps Brian Taylor in Melbourne from Thursday to Monday during the season, but on the other days, and out of season, he's at his 121 hectare farm in Monegetta, near Romsey, with wife Tania and their four sons. They have 150 breeding cattle.
Nelson Alexander auctioneer Arch Staver told the crowd his Sydney vendor was selling to relocate to Brisbane. There were extended settlement terms available, he advised.
The bluestone building was used as a furniture factory after its ceased operating as a tabernacle.
It features an ornately carved and suitably religious front door and an original banner in the lounge-room proclaiming “Holiness becomes thy house”.
The Bible Christian Church was a Methodist denomination founded by William O’Bryan, a Wesleyan Methodist local preacher in 1815 in North Cornwall. Its mission in Australia was established in 1850.
The marble kitchen has a butler's pantry, and two sets of French doors open to an east-facing paved terrace. The two bedrooms are on the same level, separated by a bathroom. Upstairs is storage space with the possibility to convert into another bedroom.
The agents were telling potential pre-auction buyers that the sale price could be expected to be either side of $3 million.
