Como House facing carve-up

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”We’re looking at a range of options for Como which would better utilise the property. It’s our most important asset and we want it to be more open and engaged with the community,” he said.

Past proposals to improve the commercial viability of Como House by building a function centre or relaxing planning controls to allow more events have met with resistance.

Mr Purslow said strict planning guidelines had prevented the trust hiring out the Italianate mansion and gardens for private functions, with up to 15 requests for weddings turned down each week.

The Sunday Age understands the move to subdivide the land could be a negotiating tactic to encourage planning authorities to loosen controls over the property.

”That subdivision and the potential for buildings to be built on that subdivision makes people pay attention,” Mr Purslow said.

”If it makes people take things seriously and makes people look in a blue-sky way at the future of a site that is important to the people of Victoria – and it enables people to discuss in a constructive way how these sites might be supported and safeguarded in their entirety off into the future – then that is a good outcome for the people of Victoria.”

Mr Purslow stressed that the subdivision was permitted by a historic provision in the land title.

But The Sunday Age can also reveal that the National Trust is in negotiations to sell part of the grounds to Stonnington Council.

”We’re looking at buying part of the property to ensure it remains in public hands, but it would probably still be controlled by the National Trust, although that detail still needs to be ironed out,” a senior council source said.

A spokesman for Stonnington Council refused to discuss its relationship with the National Trust.

Built in 1847, Como House was owned by the Armytage family from 1864 to 1959 when it was sold to the National Trust.

High maintenance costs and planning problems have made Como a drain on the trust’s finances for more than two decades, with the venue posting a $170,000 operating deficit last year and significantly contributing to the group’s overall financial loss of $348,000.

A number of important heritage-listed estates have been subdivided and sold off in recent years, albeit none owned by the National Trust.

Deakin University sold Malvern’s Stonington Mansion to art dealer Rod Menzies for $18 million and the sprawling grounds were developed into a high-end residential estate.

Boutique property developer Simone Semmens also carved up and sold off a large portion of the Rosecraddock estate in Caulfield North.

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