The Sell: Hospitality empire chief toasts purchase of space in Sydney CBD art deco building
Billionaire Merivale hospitality empire chief Justin Hemmes has snapped up another strategic Sydney CBD location, this time a ground floor space in a heritage-listed 1930s art deco building.
NSW
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No surprise that billionaire Merivale hospitality empire chief Justin Hemmes has snapped up another strategic Sydney CBD location.
His recently lodged annual financial return reveals revenues jumped to $610m, up from the previous financial year’s $353m.
Revenue from the sale of beverage and food at his numerous venues totalled $519m.
Merivale now has 5750 employees, more than double the 2400 amid the 2021 pandemic lockdowns.
The accounts show Hemmes Group made a profit of $4.19m, a turnaround on the prior year’s $1.83m loss. The consolidated gross assets of the company and its entities are put at $719m.
The group has $119m of unutilised loan facilities.
Hemmes’ midweek acquisition was the 314sq m ground floor space in the heritage-listed 1930s art deco building on the corner of York and Barrack streets.
James Hardie House, or Asbestos House, as it was initially proudly known, was designed in 1927.
The space recently vacated by its owner-occupier Woolworths fetched $6.8m at auction, with the 51-year-old billionaire doing the bidding.
Colliers agent Callum Cooke told the realcommercial website that Hemmes thought it was a good corner position and that it was “quite a good price”.
Hemmes, who has been dating model Madeline Holtznagel for around three years, owns about 100 pubs, hotels and eateries around Australia, most recently moving into Victoria with three new outlets.
The latest acquisition is on the same city block as Merivale’s long-lasting Hotel CBD which opened in 1995, and it is not far from the Ivy precinct in George St where Hemmes has been exploring options for a new hotel, hospitality and lifestyle complex since 2018.
John Hemmes, the patriarch of the fashion-turned-hospitality empire, died in 2015, with the company run and owned by his style icon widow Merivale and their two children, Bettina and Justin.
NOT BEST RETURN ON BLOCK FOR REALITY ACES
The Block 2003 contestants Gavin Atkins and Warren Sonin have sold one of their three Potts Point investment apartments for $900,000.
But the price of the 18th floor hotel conversion Zenith apartment fetched well short of a profitable return when sold through local agent Jason Boon.
The couple, who have run interiors firm Designer Boys since competing in the first series of the Nine Network show, had paid $890,000 in 2017, so a paltry $10,000 gain in six years on the one-bedroom apartment most recently leased at $660 a week.
Small change, though, for the couple, long known as Gav and Waz, who have recently sold their Sunshine Coast, Queensland, hinterland retreat for a windfall $10m.
The 4ha Cooroy Mountain rainforest estate, Riverdale, had cost $2.7m in late 2016 with some improvements made on moving in.
They sold to Ian Wells, the former Fortescue chief financial officer, and wife Mary through Linda Shore-Perez at Villa Prestige Properties, who secured the record price in an off-market sale.
The couple also enjoyed huge success with their previous 23ha hinterland retreat at Federal, outside Byron Bay, which they sold for $3m in 2013, having bought in 2007 for $610,000.
Gav and Waz were part of the first The Block series, in which the teams renovated a four-unit complex on Bondi’s Roscoe St.
They were the first same-sex couple to appear on Australian reality TV, often renovating in their underwear. Sonin had been a sales manager and Atkins worked in public relations at Landcare Australia, with the duo doing their day jobs during the renovation under the renovation show rules.
Crazy John, the phone retailer seeking to piggyback the high-rating success of the series, paid $670,000 at its auction after the makeover.
MARSHMALLOW MANSION BRINGS SOLID PRICE
Hollander House, the quirky piece of organic architecture at Newport on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, has sold for $2,582,000.
Built in the early 1970s, its whimsical hand-formed ferro concrete facade earnt it the nickname the Flintstone House or, alternatively, sometimes the Marshmallow Mansion.
It had been listed initially with a $2.25m guide which was increased to $2.4m before the midweek McGrath auction.
The low-set home on its 904sq m Newport block capturing wide ocean views has been renovated since last being traded when bought by graphic design studio owner Pieter Owen and his wife, Michelle, in 2015 for $1.4m from interior designer Nancy Renzi, who had paid $860,000 in 2011.
The split-level Grandview Drive home has three bedrooms and a study, two bathrooms and two living areas. There is undercover parking for two cars along with an electric vehicle charger.
The home comes with a sunken lounge, or conversation pit as noted on the original floor plan, which is the heart of the living space especially in winter when the fire is going.
Created between 1969 and 1971 by architect David Hollander, from the Hollander of Towell and Rippon practice, as his own home, Australian House & Garden readers voted it one of the country’s best houses soon after its completion by builder BA Moore, of Crows Nest.
It quickly got its Flinstones moniker as referenced in a 1971 article by journalist John Yeomans.
CHAPPELLI IN SMART CALL ON PENTHOUSE
Former Australian cricket captain Ian Chappell and his wife, Barbara-Ann, have bought at Elanora Heights in a $2.4m off market penthouse purchase.
The downsize came after selling their Bayview abode for $3.55m at mid-year auction through Duane Hunter and Siggi Muehlich, of D&S Hunter Estate Agents.
The four-bedroom, three-bathroom cul-de-sac house offered views from Pittwater to Lion Island from its alfresco wraparound terrace.
There were six registered buyers at the auction who took the result $800,000 higher than its reserve price.
The 2105sq m property had been bought by the Chappells in late 1984 for $295,000 when moving from Neutral Bay.
They now have ocean views from the penthouse in The Elanora complex.
It is a three-bedroom plus study apartment which last sold for $1,170,000 through Hunter in 2014.
The outspoken 80-year-old, who captained Australia from 1971 to 1975 while playing 75 Tests for Australia between 1964 and 1980, including being a key figure in World Series Cricket, briefly owned a two-bedroom apartment on the Northern Beaches. It was in the Edgewater over-55s complex at Bayview, which was sold in 2020 for $1,850,000.
He won the Bayview Tennis Club championship doubles and was runner-up in singles in his heyday.
Chappell hung up the headphones at Nine in 2022 after four decades of commentary.
INFLUENTIAL ARTIST’S HOME SNAPPED UP
The former Woollahra home of artist Dr Elwyn Lynn sold midweek for around $4.9m through Sydney Sotheby’s International Realty.
The buyer is whispered to be the Paspaley pearl family.
Lynn lived at the freestanding sandstone cottage on its 267sq m Moncur St holding for 33 years after its £8500 purchase in 1964.
He died in 1997 after having an influential career in the arts as an art critic and writer, artist and also arts administrator.
There were over 50 solo exhibitions of his work from 1958-2001.
Lynn, who was born in Canowindra in 1917, resigned from teaching at Cleveland Street Boys’ High on his appointment as curator of the Power Gallery of Contemporary Art at the University of Sydney in 1969.
His first major art prize came in 1957, the year after Lynn married his second wife Lily Walter, who died in 2017. The property was listed by their daughter Victoria.
Lynn was appointed the first art critic of The Australian, appearing in its first issue in 1964 with a probing appraisal of William Dobell.
He was at the Weekend Australian between 1983 and 1995.
After being influenced by the views of the philosopher Professor John Anderson, Lynn was a lifelong opponent of censorship, becoming secretary of the Sydney Free Thought Society.
HOME OF AN ANGEL
The Vaucluse home of the late Don Ritchie has been listed for December 9 auction with $7.5m price guidance.
It was the longtime home of Sydney’s “Angel of the Gap”, who helped save the lives of many people who planned to jump from the nearby cliff.
Set on its 505sq m Old South Head Rd corner block, it was originally two semis.
McGrath agent Craig Pontey has the listing.
SKIPPER ON THE MOVE
Now looking along the coastal eastern strip, Greater Western Sydney AFL captain Toby Greene sold his federation semi in Drummoyne midweek.
But with the price undisclosed there is no sign of how deft his Cobden & Hayson listing agents Mia Fredrix and Matthew Hayson fared. Their mid-campaign guidance fell from $1.9m to $1.7m.
Greene bought the two-bedroom Thompson St abode for $1.84m in 2017.
PAIR’S $1.75M PRICE PAIN
A $15.25m Mosman mansion sale sent shockwaves through the suburb as it had fetched $17m in July last year.
The Federation trophy home Cambria was offloaded by former Eastern Suburbs couple Andrew Gray and his wife, Emma.
They bought the four-bedroom Redan St property after selling their Victorian Italianate Bellevue Hill estate, Rothesay, for $37m.
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Originally published as The Sell: Hospitality empire chief toasts purchase of space in Sydney CBD art deco building
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