Cairns real estate: John Morris villa development to launch in August
Millionaire Far North businessman John Morris shows no signs of slowing as he prepares to launch a $60m project in Port Douglas.
Cairns
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cairns. Followed categories will be added to My News.
DRIVING down the inviting palm-fringed 4km stretch of Port Douglas Rd, John Morris points out there are no visible buildings – just greenery, leading to a township that even after six decades since he arrived, still has a village-like atmosphere.
And that’s the way he wants it to stay.
Back in the 1970s, Mr Morris worked with council and other stakeholders on a town plan for the sleepy seaside village with a dirt road from the highway, engaging consultants from Hawaii.
He is perhaps the man who came up with the oft-cited edict that “nothing should be higher than a coconut tree” and it’s a mantra to which he is dedicated.
MORE NEWS
10 fun things to do on the Esplanade
Gurner development cops setback
Audacious Port Douglas surf proposal
“I loved the reef and the rainforest and the lovely little village atmosphere in those days, and we’re fortunate enough today to still see that village feeling here – nothing higher than a coconut tree,” he declared.
“I think Port Douglas will continue to evolve, (but) for any developer to come in and change that feeling and not give buildings that tropical feel, they would not be successful, I don’t think.
“The future of Port Douglas and the region will continue to be on the right track.”
Aged 93, Mr Morris seems indefatigable and is working on his latest project – the low key but luxurious $60 million Escape Villa Collection on a 2ha former pineapple plantation adjacent to St Crispin’s cafe, which he also owns.
Stage 1 will encompass 16 villas, with the first three set to hit the market in early August.
The villas come with a five year Mirage Country Club membership including tennis, gym and swim, and a discounted golf membership.
Each villa has its own private pool.
He and wife Marillyn, a noted stock analyst from Los Angeles, arrived in Port Douglas in 1974 seeking a boat berth, and fell in love with it.
While Christoper Skase – with his $100 million Sheraton Grand Mirage opening in 1987 before a spectacular downfall that resulted in him becoming a fugitive in Spain – is often credited with putting Port Douglas on the radar of the rich and famous, it is the unassuming Mr Morris who has had real influence over the years.
His developments have included the Radisson Treetops resort, the Toressian Resort – now called Reef Resort Villa, Cayman Villas, Wetherby Station, Crystalbrook Station and the Wildlife Habitat, among others.
Some 30 years ago the millionaire businessman, who started out selling Sellotape, built a five bedroom retreat 1-3 Wharf St, which was purchased last December for $8.25m by former Carlton premiership player Fraser Brown.
Mr Morris intends to live in a villa at his new development.
“We bought the property in the old Skase days and we developed the old railway station – this land has been sitting here for many, many years, and we always wondered what to do with it,” he said.
“Then the penny dropped, the town needed some high class development in the form of villas.”
He’s particularly excited about the 4,000-odd plants on site, pointing out how bougainvillea will flow down the canal bank.
“Landscaping is so often left to last minute and a lot of us tend to run out of funds at that point, and to my mind the landscape is just as important as the furnishing or design of the building, and that is something I love to do,” he said.
“This will be one of the best developments in terms of landscaping that has ever come to the Far North.”
Daughters Wendy and Janet are closely involved in what is very much a family project, and workers such as landscape gardener Johnny Douglas have been with Mr Morris for more than 40 years.
The first three villas will hit the market in early August.
Originally published as Cairns real estate: John Morris villa development to launch in August
Woman, 22, who slashed her mother’s throat with a box cutter faces sentence
A psychological report of a woman who slashed her mothers throat on the Cairns esplanade has found she still poses a high risk of committing violence against her mother as she faced sentencing for attempted murder.
I thought I’d met my soulmate. Then I learnt the sick truth
A ‘vulnerable’ woman thought she’d met ‘the one’, only to learn she was the victim of a cruel plot.