By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Coming in hot: Stephen Arvanitis, the youthful son of polarising aged care mogul Peter Arvanitis, is selling up the Toorak mansion he recently bought from the Smorgon family for about $30 million. That didn’t last long, we hear you cry.
The mansion is on the desirable north side of St Georges Road, Toorak. Credit: Eamon Gallagher
Young Arvanitis bought the six-bedroom St Georges Road mansion which sits on about 2100 square metres of gardens including a tennis court in October 2023, but only settled last year.
Now it is back on the market, and could suit a new owner with a desire to renovate or for a knock down rebuild subject to council approval, said agent Robert Fletcher of Forbes Global Properties.
“Certainly it is one of the last holdings of that size on the northern side of St Georges Road, which is obviously a preference,” said Fletcher, brimming with enthusiasm about its rarity and value.
There is no heritage overlay, he added. Marketing is in its very early stages.
Peter Arvanitis and his wife, Areti.Credit: Instagram
Arvanitis, who is about to hit 30, is heading overseas to live. Europe, we imagine.
The St Georges Road property had been in the wealthy industrialist and philanthropic Smorgon family for decades and Arvanitis bought it from Michael and Hayley Smorgon.
Lately, Toorak mansion sales have been in the Arvanitis family way. In October father Peter and wife Areti Arvanitis listed their Toorak mansion on Irving Road through Forbes Global with a price guide of $50 million to $55 million after a period off market.
The property was designed by Travis Walton Architecture, with gardens by landscape architect Jack Merlo, and includes a French chandelier sourced from Hollywood producer Aaron Spelling’s LA mansion.
It had been written up as “the Melbourne mansion with Gucci in almost every room” in a 2020 feature in Vogue Living.
That turned out to be monumental bad timing, coming as it did as a COVID-19 outbreak turned deadly at aged care home Epping Gardens, which was part owned by Arvanitis through the Heritage Care company. Arvanitis resigned as a director soon afterwards.
The Irving Road property, meanwhile, is still for sale.
Dinner for one
SPOTTED: Former prime minister John Howard dining alone at the Australian Club on Monday on Sydney’s Macquarie Street.
Where better to get some peace and quiet away from the 21st century than an all-male club? Howard, of course, is a member, as are most retired Liberal Party grandees. Unless your name is Scott Morrison, who was brutally rejected last year.
Our spies spotted Howard tucking into a ham sandwich cut into four, sipping on a tomato juice and flicking through a copy of what looked like The Spectator.
Several members bowled him up for a chat, even though stuffy convention has it that solo diners are to be left undisturbed.
Scomo in space
We spent most of the last three years laughing at Scott Morrison. Now the joke’s on us. Donald Trump is back in the White House, and suddenly Scomo’s close relationship with the president, and his succession of miscellaneous think tank jobs with the MAGA set, make him vital to the kind of “bootlicker diplomacy” needed to deal with the current leader of the free world.
Donald Trump and Scott Morrison.
Should Dutton knock off Anthony Albanese, our money is now on Morrison to replace Kevin Rudd in Washington DC.
Anyway. Along with the New Year’s Eve appearance at Mar-a-Lago and guest spots on random Kiwi podcasts, Morrison is busy juggling seven different board/advisory-type roles. That includes his job as chair of Space Centre Australia, the company that is totally going to build a spaceport on the Cape York Peninsula. One day.
As CBD reported last year, the centre’s chief executive James Palmer has a slightly bumpy past business record, with one of his previous companies going into liquidation owing creditors around $800,000. None of this deterred Scomo from jumping into the cockpit with him, and a few months on, he hasn’t lost sight on the stars.
The former PM is now set to headline the Australian Space Summit at the ICC Sydney in May. If the Liberals prevail, he could be headed to DC soon after.
No show
Sky News’ antisemitism forum will roll out over four big hours this Thursday from 1pm and the line-up is B-I-G. But one prominent name is missing.
Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and NSW Premier Chris Minns are headlining the event, which will be hosted by Sky’s inexorable Sharri Markson.
Also there, federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. But not Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. We asked the PM’s office why, but, given Tuesday was a busy old day with that whole rate cut business, we’re not expecting too nimble a response.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will be on Sky’s antisemitism forum.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
It seems the PM is heading to Adelaide for the Future SA Forum presented by the Adelaide Advertiser on Friday and can’t do both. Dutton is appearing there as well as at Sky News. Maybe Albo is heading over a day early to spread the news about that rate cut.
Also appearing on Sky News will be antisemitism special envoy Jillian Segal, Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon, celebrity judge Michael Lee, singer Deborah Conway, Liberal MP Julian Leeser, academic Greg Craven, Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s co-chief Alex Ryvchin, and forever Liberal John Howard.
We are sure Albo can tune in, wherever he ends up.
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