The Sell: Prized sheep stations listed from Colin Bell portfolio
The prized merino sheep stations Boonoke and Wanganella are being listed following the death of stockbroker Colin Bell.
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The prized merino sheep stations Boonoke and Wanganella are being listed following the death of stockbroker Colin Bell, while his estranged wife Donna-May Bolinger continues her claim against his residential estate.
Bell held a stake in the massive Riverina and central-west NSW farming portfolio near Deniliquin, Hay and Coonamblem that stretches 225,405ha.
The 18 Australian Food and Agriculture Company (AFA) farms extend over 306 titles that could be worth in excess of $700 million, depending on the water entitlements and crops and livestock, according to Linda Rowley from the website Sheep Central. About 100,000 merino wool sheep, 15,000 cattle and more than 14,000 stud sheep are being carried. The Wanganella and Boonoke legacy dates back to the 1860s.
The vendor, AFA, is co-owned by stockbrokers Andrew and Lewis Bell and their late brother Colin, along with Bell Financial Group managing director Alastair Provan and US billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio.
The portfolio with Rabobank Australia financing was offered for sale briefly in 2017 at a reported $330 million price.
Last year AFA generated $132 million revenue, with its latest accounts putting its net assets at $747 million.
The Bell Financial Group founder died in March 2022, leaving an estate initially estimated to be worth up to $130 million.
Bell had been separated from his fourth wife, shoe designer Donna-May Bolinger, who was born in Canada in 1960 and arrived in Australia in 1983.
His 2015 will left the majority of his estate to his two adult children, Ned Bell, the chief investment officer of Bell Asset Management, and Kate Perkins, whom he had with former wives, and also to an adult stepchild, Sophie Balderstone.
Bolinger was to get his Rosemont Ave, Woollahra, home until a 2020 codicil was added around the time the couple separated. It was bought in 1985 for $580,000 from the Vicars family.
The title has a caveat lodged by the NSW Trustree and Guardian six months before his death along with a caveat by Bolinger from June this year.
There is a return of subpoena order by this Wednesday in the contested probate proceedings in the NSW Supreme Court where Justice Hallen has noted the case was “somewhat complex” and involved “significant and hard-fought contests”.
Not surprising given there were competing death notices, with the official one simply noting Bell “led a huge, full life and will be greatly missed”.
Another noted he was the “Beloved Husband of Donna-May Bolinger” and quoting Psalm 147:3.
CUMMINGS ON WINNER WITH $22M TROPHY HOME
Horse racing trainer James Cummings and his wife Monica Barrera-Cummings have listed their newly-built Bellevue Hill trophy home with $22 million hopes.
The six-bedroom, six-bathroom turn-key residence comes with double garage and heated pool and spa. The home is being marketed as “the perfect marriage of function and taste”.
The 1940s-built home on its 993sqm block cost $4.9 million in 2019.
The couple and their two children moved to Bellevue Hill from Malabar, where they sold a six-bedroom home for $3.7 million, the same price they’d purchased it for three years earlier.
They’re apparently keen to buy an old home and rebuild again.
Cummings was trackside with Godolphin colt Cylinder, the disappointing favourite in the Group 1 Kia Golden Rose $1 million race on Saturday for three-year-olds.
Cummings was appointed as Godolphin’s head trainer in Australia in 2017, after almost a decade at the Sydney-based Leilani Lodge, Randwick, where he worked alongside his grandfather Bart Cummings.
It was a busy week in Bellevue Hill, with the Upper Hunter pastoralists Rob and Camilla Cropper selling on Kambala Road for around $40 million off market. The abode had been rebuilt to a Luigi Rosselli design since bought in 2014.
The founder of boutique travel agency Wall Street Travel, Ben Caplan, and his property valuer wife Linda Martin sold their semi-detached home at midweek TRG auction for $15.602 million.
The four-bedroom property shares a wall and tennis court with the adjoining property, owned by Geoff Lucas, the head of the ASX listed The Agency and wife Nicola.
The just-sold semi buyers will enjoy court access on odd calendar days.
KEATING CAR PARKING SPACE MUST PURCHASE FOR T&P
Former prime minister Paul Keating has emerged the latest winner when selling his car parking space investment at a price premium amid the compulsory strata redevelopment of The Chimes in Potts Point.
The longtime local resident secured $315,000 earlier this month for his 18sqm parking spot.
It was bought by developer Tim Price’s Time & Place (T&P), which is nearing four years into its acquisition process.
The current 1964 building of studio apartments sits on less than a third of its 1284sqm Macleay St holding, hence the redevelopment interest of T&P who lobbed an $85 million offer in 2020 for the purchase of all 80 units.
T&P lodged a concept building application last November with Sydney City Council, with the NSW Land & Environment Court to conduct an onsite conciliation conference next week.
“As a rule of thumb, any application for major works needs the consent of all of the owners of the land being developed before it is determined,” a City of Sydney spokesperson told The Sell.
There are still some 12 car spaces and 13 apartments that T&P has yet to secure in the building although it is understood a handful are under option.
It recently settled its $400,000 purchase of the 30 sqm tandem carspace sold by London-based retired stockbroker Greg Peacock, beating out the previous $385,000 suburb record.
Its studio acquisitions have ranged between $650,000 and $1.14 million.
The priciest to date was for former Home And Away star Erika Heynatz’s top floor unit.
The Keating family trustee company paid $780,000 in 2007 for the car space along with a two-bedroom top floor apartment he retains across the road in the 1934 Selsdon block. They have other parking spots in the neighbourhood.
The Chimes complex enjoyed Labor links dating back decades through ownership of the family of the late Ingrid and Lionel Murphy, the former Australian Attorney-General. The Grassby clan were also longtime owners.
HIGH HOPES FOR $200M OFFER ON RANELAGH
The residents of Darling Point’s Ranelagh residential highrise have received an unsolicited $200 million offer to purchase the entire property.
The 30-storey complex was built in 1969 on an 8827sq m Darling Point Road holding by the Tibor Balog led Progress and Properties.
The offer comes days before its 150 owners hold an extraordinary general meeting to decide whether to take out a loan to fund its proposed facade remediation project.
The strata owners’ corporation executive has worked over the past five years on how to replace the windows with adequate weatherproofing and give the building facade a nifty makeover. Some longtime residents have been concerned the $26 million costing of two years ago has risen to $36 million. Owners face levies somewhere between $110,000 and $750,000.
The offer lobbed from veteran agent Paul Kantor at Richardson & Wrench Double Bay, who declined to identify who he was representing. It is understood the terms included a $10 million non-refundable deposit.
The building remains split on whether the works will be funded by the adding a 31st floor as a 400sq m-plus penthouse.
The $200 million offer has prompted one resident to seek “property savvy” appointments to the executive committee to review all alternatives.
But the building has seen recent exits from the likes of veteran mortgage broker John Kolenda, the co-founder of the Finsure Group who bought elsewhere in Darling Point paying $6 million for the triplex of stand-up comedian Carl Barron.
The property veteran Robert Christie recently sold after seeking $1.95 million for his fourth-level, two-bedroom Ranelagh (left) apartment.
The Sunday Telegraph wrote in 1969 it was the tallest residential building in Australia, towering 400 feet (122m) above sea level.
LOWER NORTH SHORE LOSS BIG GAIN FOR TESTINI
Loss taking has hit the Lower North Shore with Giovanni Testini, co-founder of Vessel Beverages, the beneficiary of the pricey suburbs price relapse
The discounted Californian bungalow sold recently for $8 million, a $300,000 drop on its boomtime exuberance.
The four-bedroom, two-bathroom abode had been bought in November 2021 for $8.3 million by Denielle Campey, who came from across the harbour to make the purchase when the property was offered for the first time in five decades.
Finger pointing besmirched local agents say the recent ignominious resale was done by an out of area agent, Adam Reichman of Ray White Double Bay.
Set on a 525 sqm parcel, the bungalow retains heritage features behind its exposed brick facade. There are patterned ceilings, leadlight windows and an open fireplace.
The incidence of pandemic-era home buyers bailing within two years at a loss more than tripled across Australia to 9.7 per cent in the June quarter from a year earlier, CoreLogic’s latest Pain and Gain report advised.
Strathfield, Parramatta, Ryde among the Greater Sydney regions posting a high portion of short-term loss-making sales.
Hunters Hill was the only municipality without any losses.
SALE ON SONG FOR RICKI-LEE
Nova FM co-host Ricki-Lee Coulter and her husband Richard Harrison have sold their Northern Beaches home.
It took 39 days through Belle Property – half the median time on market – after the price guidance was tweaked from $2.5 million to $2.45 million.
Dividing their time between the beaches and the city, the couple have decided to save some travel time while they look for their forever home.
GAME, SET AND PERFECT MATCH
Lochindaal, the 1923 Cheltenham residence, has been sold post-auction
through McGrath for a record $5.245 million.
The tennis court on its 1960sq m holding attracted the buyers from The Hills.
The listing by the Lennox family, who paid $186,130 in 1985, garnered 5000 page views on realestate.com.au.
The five-bedroom, three-bathroom Cheltenham Rd house boasted period features.
FINAL PRICE IS NOT YET FIXED
The on-site Saturday auction of the Centennial Park home of Sydney’s Mr Fix It Grant Vandenberg, who had just returned from holidaying in Europe, and his wife Lisa fell short of its $13 million guidance through The Agency.
The Lang Rd house was passed in at $12.51 million.
The couple purchased the house for $1.3 million in 1998.
They have bought in Paddington for $6.4 million.
New buyer of Nassif’s Toplace site revealed
A building site in Sydney’s west, where a $600 million town centre was meant to be built by Jean Nassif’s Toplace, now has a new owner.
Building company collapses owing millions
Another Aussie builder has gone bust, leaving home buyers in the lurch and creditors owed millions.