Billionaire James Packer’s Crown ambitions collapse as he abandons Barangaroo penthouse
Set to sell off his last stake in Crown, casino tycoon James Packer has built a $70 million penthouse in his Barangaroo tower that he is too scared to visit.
NSW
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From his two-storey $70 million penthouse at the top of the gleaming tower he built at Barangaroo James Packer can look down on the world he inherited.
Except the penthouse remains empty, Packer’s control and influence over Crown casinos has gone and, if a bid by US private equity firm Blackstone is accepted, so too will his remaining shares in the company.
How did it come to this? The fourth generation of the Packer family that has dominated Sydney, the ASX and Australian media for more than a century swept clean from all three.
“I was like Icarus,” he told biographer Damon Kitney. “I flew too close to the sun.”
He had a pop star girlfriend in Mariah Carey, a film production business in Hollywood and ambitions to turn his casino interests into a global gaming company.
To do so he turned his back on the media empire that had been founded by his great grandfather R.C. Packer and built up by his grandfather Frank and father Kerry into a powerhouse incorporating Nine and Australian Consolidated Press.
James’s ambitions collapsed along with his mental health. At one stage he was drinking a bottle of vodka a day. There was a sex scandal in Hollywood and the Bergin inquiry in NSW found evidence of money laundering and links to Triads at Crown’s casinos.
Crucially Former Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin found Packer’s influence had “disastrous consequences for the company”. He agreed to step back and looks certain to accept Blackstone’s offer to buy him out.
Crown chief executive Steve McCann yesterday said the company had liaised with Packer’s Consolidated Press Holdings “but not had direct contact with James Packer”.
If he takes the Crown board recommendation to sell his 37 per cent stake in the company it will deliver him a $3 billion payday.
It may also give the 54-year-old the peace from the public spotlight he and ex-wife Erica and their children Indigo, Jackson and Emmanuelle have craved. They have spent Christmas together at Packer’s $20 million West Buttermilk Estate in the up-market US ski resort of Aspen away from prying lenses.
A source close to the now reclusive billionaire told The Daily Telegraph: “James will not be looking at building another empire but concentrating on investments.”
He has already begun by backing a new investment group established by one of his few remaining mates, ex-Macquarie banker Ben Brazil, that also has the backing of his mentor, Channel 7 owner Kerry Stokes.
He has a polo ranch in Argentina, a recently finished beach pad in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, an $80 million mansion in Los Angeles, a $200 million superyacht named IJE after his children and the penthouse in Barangaroo. It is the last one he is least likely to visit.
“Truth is, I’m scared of Sydney. I’m scared of the newspapers. I don’t want to be hit any more. I worry whether Sydney will ever feel like home again. There is a lot of pain there for me,” he told his biographer.
His mother Ros has considered living in the penthouse for a while and has said the Crown tower was a project that was “very, very close” to her son’s heart and something “He feels that as a family, this is something we are giving to Sydney”.
Perhaps when he has sold his interest in Crown and no longer plays a part in Sydney life he will be able to slip in quietly to finally enjoy the view from the tower he built.
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