Property king reveals young heir to $1.3bn empire

Brisbane property king Warren Ebert has hit the ground running following the controversial business split from his daughter and not only with big property deals.

Property king Warren Ebert has hit the ground running following the controversial business split from his daughter, with property deals not the only thing keeping him busy.

Ebert has a young heir to the $1.3bn empire, a three-year-old son with his wife that keeps the former taxi driver busy both professionally and personally. He adds the young fella may be ready to take over “in about 20 years.”

“It has never been easier to make money and I am powering on,” the Sentinel Property founder tells City Beat. “I am not changing the way I operate.”

Ebert does not believe his young family was a factor in the split with his 38-year-old daughter Stacey, with both now planning to operate separate property businesses. “As far as I know everyone got on together,” says Ebert, who was in Darwin recently trying to finalise a deal on a shopping centre. “We would have Christmas together and Stacey actually has a child just a few years older.” He says the rupture with Stacey happened quickly and puts it down to differences in generational attitudes to business.

“I believe if you put the work in, you will reward your investors,” he says. “You don’t need to have cuddle sessions and cakes on a Friday.”

Split … Stacey Jones and father Warren Ebert

He says investors were backing him because they realised the investment model worked. “I had a lady on the phone crying last week about what had happened.” says Ebert. “She had a $1.5m investment with us and was worried I was going away. I am not going anywhere.” Ebert says he held the rights to the Sentinel name and logo, which he would continue to use after moving into a new office with more than 20 staff by Christmas.

Ebert started Sentinel in the middle of the Global Financial Crisis more than a decade ago and built it into a fund management and property development business with $1.3bn in assets.

The property empire is operated through an extensive network of different companies, with Jones serving on several boards with her father. Stacey Jones has conceded there were frustrations with working with her father.

“I felt I was coming up against a brickwall with changes that had to happen given the size of the business,” she says. “Rather than have a chat and see how to structure things differently, it escalated and we were in discussions via a third party on how it would look like.”