Concrete kings: the millionaires behind our construction titans
Few people know who they are, but these multimillionaires are the driving force behind companies that have built our state. SEE THE LIST
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Few people know who they are, but these multimillionaires are the driving force behind companies which have built our state.
WAGNER FAMILY
Toowoomba’s Wagner family, recently named among Queensland’s wealthiest people with a combined worth of more than $1 billion, have come a long way in a short time.
In 1989 Henry Wagner set up their construction company with son Denis, John, Neill and Joe and by 2017 they had publicly listed, with a market capitalisation nowadays of more than $354 million.
The family have built a reputation as go-getters and innovators.
They offered to build a new Sydney airport — for half what the Government said it would cost.
Recently, they offered to build a coronavirus quarantine centre and on the weekend announced the world’s biggest medicinal cannabis farm at their Wellcamp airport facility.
The Toowoomba family’s construction roots stretch back to 1856.
One of their early projects was providing the stonework for the third stage of St John’s Anglican Cathedral in Brisbane.
From 1989, the business expanded rapidly from one concrete plant to 19 and now employs 1100 people.
Diversification led the business into precast concrete, re-enforcing steel, groundbreaking building products and major construction and infrastructure projects as far afield as icebound Sakhalin in Russia.
But it is their Wellcamp airport, the first public airport built in Australia in half a century, which propelled them into the headlines.
In October last year the family announced it was planning to build an entertainment and motorsport precinct at Wellcamp at a cost of $175 million.
DON O’RORKE
Mr O’Rorke keeps on making headlines with his bold property moves, most recently only last week when he emerged as the $43 million buyer of a parcel of land at the old ABC studios site in Toowong.
As a founding member of Consolidated Properties Group, the Brisbane Boys’ College Old Boy has shaped the business over 40 years to its current $2.3 billion development pipeline.
Mr O’Rorke, who built what was at one time Brisbane’s most expensive house, in Bulimba, now lives on a sprawling $10 million property in Brookfield.
Ranked at number three on The Courier-Mail’s 2018 Top 10 Property List and number 66 on the Top 100 Influencers List, he is less well known for his philanthropy and love of surfing.
He sits on the board of Surfing Australia, the BBC Foundation and previously was a member of Brisbane Marketing and the Property Council of Australia.
His major projects in recent times include the massive Yeerongpilly Green transport oriented residential estate on Brisbane’s southside, and what will be one of Australia’s biggest sand mines, at Coolum on the Sunshine Coast.
It is expected to have an operational life of about 20 years and scale up to employ 80 workers.
DR SOHEIL ABEDIAN
The chairman of Gold Coast-based developer since 1994, Iranian-born, Austrian-trained architect, developer and visionary Soheil Abedian arrived on the Gold Coast in 1983.
After selling Persian carpets with his brother Sep he started his property business with a single luxury home project on the Gold Coast.
It is now a vast property empire which has made him a personal fortune of more than $130 million.
He now controls more than 51 million of the Benowa company’s 137 million shares and son Sahba holds more than eight million shares.
Dr Abedian’s best known landmark will likely always be the Q1 super tower in Surfers Paradise, at one point billed as the tallest residential tower on the planet.
Despite his wealth, technically he pays himself only about $750,000 a year, all of which is gifted to Bond and Griffith universities.
His Abedian Foundation funds Bond and Griffith uni scholarships.
The family’s Sunland Group these days has a portfolio of more than 4000 homes, urban land lots, multistorey apartments and 20,000sq m of retail worth $3 billion.
Some of his early luxury home customers included renowned, late realtor Max Christmas and ‘80s developer Mike Gore.
Sunland is also famous for building Palazzo Versace, a five-star hotel on the Gold Coast, which opened in September 2000.
Other developments include residential highrises Yve (2005) and Balancea (2008), both in Melbourne, and the 41-storey Abian tower near the City Botanic Gardens in Brisbane, which was completed in 2017.
A rare “failure’’ was Grace on Coronation, a distinctive three-tower project that was to have been built on the former ABC studios at Toowong until the project was defeated in the Planning and Environment Court.
Dr Abedian sold the property last week to Consolidated Property Group for $43 million.
SCOTT HUTCHINSON
One of Mr O’Rorke’s best mates, Kangaroo Point resident Hutchinson is the latest in a long line of the well-known Brisbane construction family.
The chairman of Hutchinson Builders is well known for his philanthropy, particularly work opportunities for indigenous people, and his support for the local music scene through the Fortitude Music Hall.
Hutchinson Builders, affectionately known as Hutchies, built the 3500-capacity music hall to provide a venue for live acts after the old Festival Hall concert venue was demolished.
The music tragic has 18,000 songs on his smart phone, an impressive electric guitar collection, is the patron of QMusic and attends the Burning Man music festival in the US every year.
But it is inner-city highrise and other construction work which has literally cemented his fortune.
Although he is Australia’s 199th wealthiest person with a fortune of $545 million, he is as well known for his good deeds as his riches.
Some of Hutchies’ recent projects include the O’Reilly Rainforest Retreat hotel, University of Tasmania student accommodation and The Ambrose residential highrise in Milton.
Work stalled on The Ambrose until earlier this year, but is now back in full swing.
SINNATHAMBY FAMILY
“Mr Springfield’’, Maha Sinnathamby, grew up poor in a Malaysian village, rising to become a billionaire thanks to his visionary mini-city in Brisbane’s southwest.
Ranked 76th in the country with a fortune of about $1.35 billion, the engineer-turned-entrepreneur not only built a vast housing estate, he has turned it into a self-sufficient mini-city with its own train station, 80-bed private hospital and shopping centre.
Springfield, once 2860ha of bushland which he bought for $8 million about 25 years ago, has been his life’s great work.
The masterplanned community is heading for more than 100,000 residents.
He recently announced a $20 million hydrogen energy storage plant for Springfield.
NEILSEN FAMILY
The family-owned Neilsens Quality Gravels Pty Ltd was started by the family at Brendale north of Brisbane in 1976.
A second quarry at Beaudesert was opened in 1997, with another at Bromelton coming on board in 2008 to help with increasing demand.
In 1997 an additional concrete batching plant was opened at Carole Park and another at Windsor started supplying the inner city and surrounding suburbs in 2004.
Their fourth concrete plant at Stapylton opened in January, 2011.
The Neilsen Group supplies products to the Brisbane, Moreton, Ipswich and Scenic Rim councils, Main Roads Department and SES.
It’s recent projects include: Beaudesert Rd upgrade; Airport Link; Gurner FV in Fortitude Valley; Westfield Chermside; UQ Advanced Engineering building; Bunnings at Keperra; Eatons Hill Hotel; Brisbane’s second runway; Legacy Way Tunnel; and Cross River Rail.
Ray Neilsen and his sister Leonie Merker are worth an estimated $550 million.
And it all started with a “worthless’’ 200ha block of floodprone land on the banks of the South Pine River that no-one else wanted.
SEYMOUR FAMILY
Kevin Seymour has had his fingers in a lot of pies over the years, from CBD car parks to share investments, oil, gas and racing, but it is his plethora of inner-city unit projects that made him one of the key shapers of Brisbane’s skyline.
A resident in a riverfront Tennyson unit these days, the former Pullenvale acreage owner is preparing to hand over the reins of his huge construction empire to his grandsons and other family members.
The Seymour Group founder, who ranked 163rd on the 2020 AFR Rich List with a net worth of $662 million, said he loved the ever-changing river and the cafes, entertainment and parks of Tennyson.
COVID-19 made an impact on his wealth last year, which took a 13.8 per cent hit and was down from $768 million.
The 80-year-old has begun handing over control to family, including three grandsons he gave a cool $100 million as a test of their skill in developing a riverfront New Farm project.
Some of his major projects have included the Admiralty 1 and 11 highrise residential towers next to the Story Bridge.
TOMKINS FAMILY
The Brisbane-based family has built up a diverse residential and commercial construction empire with recent projects including the University of Queensland Elkhorn building, Silk One in Woolloongabba, RISE Apartments at Maroochydore, the $44 million Riverlight North Tower in Hamilton Reach and the Komatsu Distribution Centre in Wacol.
Mike Tomkins, the fourth generation of the family company, Tomkins Commercial and Industrial Builders, was also recently awarded contracts with listed institutional investors such as Blue Sky and Fraser’s Australand.
Mr Tomkins is a hands-on, down-to-earth type of guy.
He wears the same uniform to work and turns up for work at 6.30am every day.
The family business was started by his entrepreneurial grandfather Ted who invented one of the first ready-mix concretes.
Other satisfied customers over the years include the Malouf family which awarded Tomkins the right to build international homewares giant Williams-Sonoma’s first Queensland outlet.
The family empire looks set to transform the skyline for years to come, with Mr Tomkins’ son Brendan joining the company.
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