John Singleton spends $200m to boost his beloved Central Coast
Larrikin businessman John Singleton is spending $200 million in a last-ditch attempt to boost the “totally crook” Central Coast into a world class destination to rival the Gold Coast in Queensland.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Larrikin adman John Singleton is spending $200 million in a last-ditch bid to boost the “totally crook” Central Coast into a world-class destination to rival the Gold Coast.
And he has taken The Saturday Telegraph on a tour of the area north of Sydney in his new $1 million Rolls Royce Ghost to share his vision.
“I have left it a bit late to turn into a property developer,” he said.
“But I could put Harry Triguboff out of business.”
The 78-year-old entrepreneur said: “People thought I had died and they wanted me to go on 60 Minutes to show what this old c... is doing now.”
MORE NEWS:
How horror bushfire season changed RFS chief forever
Clubs named and shamed over dodgy gambling tactics
What he is doing is avoiding scandals, like his infamous blow-up with Gai Waterhouse, and instead building Gosford’s first $40 million high-rise Bonython Tower with a schmick bar underneath and the Ravello block of $2.3 million apartments overlooking Brisbane Water.
“We don’t need to have two Brisbanes in Australia, it’s confusing,” Singo said.
“It should be renamed Woy Woy Waters or Darkinjung Waters after the Aboriginal people.”
He has backed his vision for the area by buying another seven blocks of land to develop more luxury apartments to try and spark the economy.
He believes it could be to Sydney what the Gold Coast is to Brisbane — both have a similar population and are an hour north.
“I have spent 20 years complaining about why there is nothing happening here when it is just so beautiful. It is paradise,” he said.
“We need people to come and live and stay here.”
Up in the hills he has developed the Bells at Killcare hotel and the exclusive $3000-a-night, four-room Pretty Beach House hotel, which has hosted Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams and singer Robert Plant.
He is also planning to build a spa that will do “all that health and detox bullshit” near the Saddles restaurant he built because he “could not get a decent coffee anywhere on the Central Coast”.
The restaurant is on the site of a former nursery. Singo potters down to Saddles from his Strawberry Hill Stud on Mount White in a four-wheel-drive golf buggy for his evening beer. But he ignores the craft ales on tap.
“None of that Japanese crap, they keep Tooheys New for me in the fridge out the back,” he said.
“I put it in a Saddles stubby holder.”
Far from taking it easy, Singo is busy with his horses and has three colts and three fillies ready for the Easter Yearling Sales, including one by Snitzel out of More Joyous that is expected to fetch more than $1 million.
He bred and sold the favourite in the Golden Slipper and still wants one of his stars to recreate the magic moment when Belle de Jour won that race in 2000, prompting Singo to shout the public bar.
“Well, if you have a win like that you can afford to shout the bar,” he said.
He is staying positive in spite of the coronavirus, which has infected his daughter Sally and husband Pierre Hawach. Fortunately he had not seen her since she attended the wedding where she contracted the virus and is in the clear.
He still has a keen eye for the birds – he keeps a giant aviary of 100 macaws that he releases in the morning and watches fly home for a feast of fresh fruit and nuts every evening.
“I bought the cage for a silly price, $1200, when a zoo in Coffs Harbour closed down,” he said.
It was a bargain until he realised that dismantling, packing, transporting and reconstructing it would cost him more than $100,000.
“Up until then I thought I was a good negotiator.”
He is driving hard to make the Central Coast all that he believes it could be.
“I have to put my foot on the accelerator now because you are all getting older and I want you to be there when I am finished,” he said.