Ex-Domain boss Antony Catalano hatches plans for $55m Byron Bay trophy home

In the competitive trophy home arena, houses doesn’t get much bigger than those that have taken shape in and around Byron Bay in recent years, of which the oft-cited winner is Hollywood’s Chris Hemsworth’s gargantuan house at Broken Head.

And while such things are always subjective, size and cost are not.

So if local media mogul Antony “The Cat” Catalano gets his way, the house he is hoping to build at Wategos Beach would turn out to be the most expensive, if not the subjective best, of its kind on the North Coast.

Kennon architectural firm have designed the four-level house on the site of what was once a banana plantation behind Wategos Beach.Credit: Byron Shire Council

To give some idea of the scale of the proposed “Catalano Private Residence”, land, stamp duty and construction costs alone total $55 million.

Antony and Stefanie Catalano already live at Byron Bay’s Wategos Beach.Credit: Instagram

The 4230-square-metre site is far and away the largest privately owned parcel in the exclusive enclave, although its value hasn’t always been obvious.

What was once just a banana plantation was transferred by the state government to the Bundjalung of Byron Bay Aboriginal Corporation (Arakwal) in 2006, and sold off in 2020 for $12.65 million to a developer hoping to redevelop the site into a mix of duplexes, a triplex and a few standalone houses.

At the time the redevelopment didn’t appeal to locals like JB Hi-Fi’s former chief Richard Uechtritz and recruitment boss Geoff Morgan, who spearheaded the formation of a fighting fund in case the redevelopment ever landed in council.

The 4230 square metres owned by Catalano is the largest privately held parcel of land at the exclusive Wategos Beach.Credit: Byron Shire Council

They needn’t have bothered. Catalano, who owns the boutique luxury resort Raes up the road, took a more singular approach, buying the site for $24.74 million. It was initially planned to be an expansion of Raes portfolio, but that changed after he bought The Bonobo by Raes luxury development in town.

The Kennon Studio-designed house is set across four levels with a six-car garage, gymnasium and music room.Credit: Byron Shire Council

Instead, the plan before Byron Shire Council is for two houses designed by architect Peter Kennon: a three-level house at the back of the block with its own pool; and a main residence for Catalano, his wife Stefanie and those of their nine children still at home.

Given about 1300 square metres of internal living space the main house is expected to claim the lion’s share of the $28.8 million estimated build cost.

Spread across four levels, it includes an underground six-car garage, gymnasium, cellar and music room with a sound booth. The levels above have six bedrooms, a dining room with seating for 22 people, a library, a 25-metre swimming pool and parent’s retreat with a rooftop spa and swimming pool.

And because it’s Byron, the elements of the littoral rainforest are to be bolstered by some 9800 trees.

Locals have not missed the plans. Of the 151 submissions to council, there are 135 objections on the grounds of the project’s size and scale, earthworks required, and concerns with traffic and stormwater.

Byron Shire Council have received 151 submissions, of which 135 are objections.Credit:

And there are 16 submissions in support, including nearest neighbour and art collector Steve Nasteski and Uechtritz, who no doubt sees merit in one big house where there were to be 10.

The bullish value of Byron Bay’s high-end real estate market is not lost on Catalano, executive chairman and co-owner of Australian Community Media and former boss of Domain (majority owned by Nine, publisher of this masthead).

If approved the project is likely to not only cast shade on Hemsworth’s “Fortress Hemsworth”, but also the beachside trophy homes of the likes of former F45 boss Adam Gilchrist, bar tzar Justin Hemmes and even the knock-down rebuild plans of Afterpay billionaire Anthony Eisen.

Touch down

The Cabarita house, sold for $9.5 million to Race and Natolie Strauss, is the second most expensive sold in the suburb.Credit: Domain

Virgin Australia CFO Race Strauss and his wife Natolie are revealed on delayed settlement records as the buyers of Cabarita’s second most expensive house, paying $9.5 million for waterfront digs with no need for finance.

The Strauss purchase – topped locally by the $14.6 million purchase in 2022 by Wallaby-turned-hotelier Bill Young - was no doubt good for Adela Dodd, wife of car dealer Terry Dodd, who purchased it for $2.7 million in 2011 and undertook a high-spec rebuild since then.

Race Strauss was appointed Virgin Australia’s CFO in March of last year.Credit: Elke Meitzel

It was listed by Dib Chidiac with a $9 million guide before it sold.

Following the paper trail, the Dodds have moved to the city, where settlement records reveal they were the mystery $10.25 million buyers of the Quay Quarter Residences investment apartment of Rob Ell, son of billionaire property developer Bob Ell.

The four-bedder is a consolidation of two apartments that was sold by Sotheby’s Jaime Upton a day before its scheduled auction.

Rob Ell’s consolidation of two apartments in the Quay Quarter building sold for $10.25 million.Credit: Domain

Football life

The Annandale terrace of James and Jessica Johnson last traded in 2021 for $2.4 million.Credit: Domain

Football Australia chief James Johnson and his wife Jessica have launched their Annandale home to the market given plans to upsize locally.

Football Australia CEO James Johnson at Alllianz Stadium.Credit: James Brickwood

The couple purchased the three-bedroom terrace – freestanding on one side given a driveway – in 2021 for $2.4 million, but have listed it with 2024’s market firmly in mind.

BresicWhitney’s Luke Grosvenor has set a $2.3 million guide ahead of the September 28 auction.