By Michael Evans
It's a peculiarly Sydney tale, featuring a waterfront property with stunning harbour views, a stoush over a million-dollar renovation, and a disputed link to an unsolved Sydney crime known as the Shark Arm Murder.
When businessman David Wilkenfeld, also known as David Fox, bought a ramshackle property featuring a boatshed with upstairs accommodation in McMahons Point in 2009 for $750,000, it appeared he had snared a once-in-a-lifetime bargain. Just a few years earlier, the property had been touted on the market with a price hopes of $10.2 million.
Mr Wilkenfeld had got his hands on 365 square metres of prime waterfront land, featuring two original condition buildings, nestled on public land in Henry Lawson Reserve, with direct harbour access and million-dollar views across the water to the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.
Other houses on Henry Lawson Avenue are on the high side of the street and don't have direct harbour access.
The harbourside property at McMahons Point.Credit: Peter Rae
But if Mr Wilkenfeld, co-owner of Bloch International, a leading global dance supplies company founded in Australia by his Lithuanian-born grandfather, was wondering why he got such a bargain he would soon find out.
Last year, Mr Wilkenfeld submitted plans to North Sydney Council proposing a $1.75 million renovation that involved demolishing the existing buildings, constructing a "mixed-use building" with commercial operations on the ground floor and two levels of residential above. He planned to build the house for his family to live in.
Locals and North Sydney Council objected, citing heritage concerns and blocking views from public land.
The council pointed out the boat house slipways that adjoined the buildings and provided boat access to the harbour were of historical significance. Mr Wilkenfeld's plans promised to maintain and restore them.
The rundown boatshed at McMahons Point.Credit: Peter Rae
But opponents also noted the proposal was "to construct a dwelling on a site that has been identified for compulsory acquisition".
The land has reportedly been subject to a compulsory acquisition order for more than 40 years and council floated that government purchase of the land would complete the public open space between McMahons and Blues points.
The property, once operated as a boat-building business by chief suspect Reginald Holmes (right), is connected with the infamous 1935 'Shark Arm Murder' of small-time criminal James Smith (left).
More directly, the council has "site specific" controls on the property.
"Until the site is purchased for public use, the site may continue to be used as a boat building or repair facility with ancillary residential accommodation," the council said. "No more than 50 per cent of the gross floor area may be used for residential purposes and must be located above the ground floor level."
Reno row: David Wilkenfeld.Credit: LinkedIn
But heritage concerns were also raised over the property's associations with a sensational cold case from Sydney's past, the "Shark Arm Murder", a prominent homicide involving a member of one of the early boatbuilding families.
Local media went into a frenzy, rehashing the tale of how on Anzac Day 1935 a tiger shark coughed up a human arm in a Coogee aquarium. The left forearm bore a distinctive tattoo.
Fingerprints identified the arm as that of former boxer and small-time criminal James Smith, a police informer who had been missing for several weeks. Police determined that while the arm ended up in a shark, it had been cut off with a knife, prompting a murder investigation.
Police tracked down a businessman named Reginald Holmes, a fraudster and smuggler who also supposedly ran a family boatbuilding business. Heritage documents lodged in response to Mr Wilkenfeld's application suggested that Mr Holmes lived in the house and thereby added to the site's historical significance.
Police later established Smith was blackmailing Holmes who was murdered on the day a coronial inquest into Smith's death was due to begin. The murders were never solved but the case was serialised in newspapers and later became the subject of a book.
Shortly before Christmas last year, the council rejected Mr Wilkenfeld's plans. He appealed.
This week the NSW Land & Environment Court dealt Mr Wilkenfeld a fresh blow, denying his appeal to council's rejection. While the court agreed there was minimal historical significance to the house, it viewed the slipways as valuable and that the property was subject to council's preconditions concerning its use.
The court also confirmed expert evidence called during the case that links between the property and the arm-in-the-shark tale didn't stand up.
Mr Wilkenfeld did not respond to requests for comment. His grandfather Jacob Bloch, a shoemaker by trade, left Lithuania for Australia in 1931.
Mr Bloch founded a dance shoe shop in Paddington in 1932, building a reputation for high-quality dance shoes. He made shoes for visiting prominent ballerinas, including Russians Olga Spessivtseva, Tamara Toumanova and Irina Baronova. The company has since expanded into a global fashion and street apparel business.