"Seeing this tower finished fills me with a lot of joy."

Such has been the success of the project that it has turned the two spiritual leaders into property development gurus with calls coming in from other dioceses seeking to learn from their experience.

"It's come together really well with minimal problems," says Father Marks. "We've already settled 260 apartments out of just over 300. The valuations have stacked up and the rents we are getting are higher than we expected."

While many religious groups have built wealth through property, often by selling their premises to developers for huge sums, the Coptic Church took a different and far more riskier approach.

Between 2009 and 2014 the Melbourne diocese acquired a series of buildings on La Trobe Street, amalgamated them into an 831 square metre site and then became bona fide developers themselves.

They then had to negotiate the planning approval process, secure off-the-plan sales and watch as the tower rose up among a forest of skyscrapers at the northern end of the CBD.

The gamble paid off with the project delivering a bumper profit to the Melbourne diocese, while also adding to its real estate portfolio. The church has retained ownership of the first four-and-a-half floors of the building that include the new chapel, a library, lecture halls, bookstore and cafe and offices for Bishop Suriel and his staff.

"Having a city campus is very important," says Bishop Suriel. "What better way to spread the message of the church and grow the congregation than in the CBD," he says.


A seven-year lease with Chinese restaurant David's Hot Pot was recently secured for the church by CBRE's Tan Thach & Zelman Ainsworth and Samantha Hunt, and will bring in $330,000 in annual rental income.

"We were given a precise brief from the Coptic Church on both timelines so that the retail is opened before the Church's grand opening, and the type of tenant.

"The Church stressed the importance of leasing the shop to an appreciate retailer that is line with what the church stood for," says Thach.

Also bringing in income will be the lecture facilities, which the church will rent out to other organisations for a fee.

The two clergyman are already thinking about their next property project - developing the 8.9 hectare site they own in Donvale in the city's east. "We'd like to build a campus out there and doing some residential development as well," Bishop Suriel says.