He will fund loans to developers on the Coast and in Sydney, providing a fresh pathway to progress for the region beyond normal banks and building societies.
Mr Denny’s company Central Real has launched a subsidiary called Central Real Capital where the proceeds from its asset disposals will fund loans to developers on the Coast and Sydney, he told AFR.
Since April, CRC has provided $78M in loans to developers while investing more than $45m with fund managers such as Balmain and Pallas Capital, which also lend funds to developers.
CRC will open offices in Sydney’s Double Bay in March 2021 while maintaining its Central Coast office.
Mr Denny said his aim was to grow the CRC fund to $200M by the end of 2021 and up to $300M by mid-2023. He said CRC was self-funded and had no plans to take in external funds.
The recent catastrophic meltdown of Central Coast Council has not deterred him from his project.
In fact, he offered to pay Council’s wages when they couldn’t afford the weekly $3M salary.
Mr Denny said he was still passionate about the region and its potential. "However, I don't have the patience for dealing with the local councillors, “which ultimately, one way or another, you have to deal with”.
"If the council was run by its competent and intelligent admin staff, the region would be running like a Swiss watch, and developers like Central Real would be willing to continue participating in the growth of the region," he said.
Apart from maintaining a large estate in Kilcare on the Bouddi Peninsula, Mr Denny decided to reinvent himself (yet again) as a real estate financier for local developers.
The global pandemic has also proved no impediment to Mr Denny's plans to sell down his residential and commercial investments on the Coast.
Mr Denny, a former Financial Review Rich Lister and one of the most prominent developers in the region, said he had exchanged contracts on a further two development sites and his former classic car museum in Gosford for a combined $24M.
Terrigal sale for $15M
This follows the September sale of three project sites in Gosford and Terrigal for more than $15M after his development firm Central Real put a portfolio of six sites on the market in March as part of plans to greatly scale down its building activities on the Central Coast.
Just one site remains, the 100-apartment Peninsula project under construction in Point Frederick.
This, Mr Denny said, was in advanced sale negotiations with a large Sydney developer with an asking price of $28M.
“Central Real had originally planned in its cash flow to be fully divested of all sites within three years. The reality looks like all properties will be sold in under 12 months," Mr Denny said.
The properties that sold in October include Mr Denny's former Gosford Classic Car Museum at 3-13 Stockyard Place in West Gosford, which sold for $14.5M.
The buyer was locally based manufacturer Borg Manufacturing.
A development site at 142-144 Albany St in Point Frederick with a permit for 37 luxury apartments was purchased by a large developer from Sydney for $7.5m and a luxury townhouse site at 11-13 Ena Street in Terrigal sold to a local builder for $2M.
Mr Denny said Central Real had another $35mn worth of properties for sale that were at different stages of the negotiation process.
His decision in March to sell up his residential and commercial interest on the Coast surprised the local business community given his passionate support and promotion of the region, where he has based himself since selling his Prague-based AAA Auto car dealership business in 2014 to Polish private equity firm Abris Capital Partners.
Source: AFR, Access
