Michael Kollosche is staging a Hedges Ave comeback after hiatus of self storage and cancer research
PROPERTY agent Michael Kollosche was “King of Hedges Ave” before he left the scene five years ago after a Fair Trading probe and civil case. Now he’s back with a $15m Mermaid listing
Realestate
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IN six golden weeks of 2006, real estate agent Michael Kollosche sold $126m worth of property.
The Gold Coast was booming, Mermaid Beach was the epicentre, and Mr Kollosche was king, offloading beachfront properties on Millionaire’s Row for an average of $6m a pop — with the bigger ones topping $20m.
In 2010, Mr Kollosche went from being everywhere on Hedges Ave to persona non grata in the real estate guide, his ascension hobbled by an investigation by a Queensland Civil and Administration Tribunal case and an Office of Fair Trading probe that was only completed last year.
The investigation was wound up without further action after he agreed to redo a “legal and ethical requirements” module of the real estate agent course.
He did it that afternoon — it took him an hour — and now the would-be king is back, sporting a new beard, with a property he’s sold before — listing at $15m a sprawling six-bedroom mansion at 159 Hedges Ave owned by Frank and Adele Picone.
The Picones bought it from pokies billionaire Bruce Mathieson, through Mr Kollosche, for $13.25m in 2009.
“Frank has loved living there, he still loves living there but he’s 70 and they’re looking to downsize,” Mr Kollosche said.
“When Bruce Mathieson built it he didn’t spare any expense — it’s second to none.”
Mr Mathieson purchased 1 Albatross Ave from former skateboarding champion Stephen Hill, with Mr Kollosche as agent, for $18m the same year.
The past five years away from real estate have seen Mr Kollosche diversify his business, buying storage facilities and selling them at a tidy profit, and starting a drug development company, with a facility in Melbourne and consultancies in Sydney and on the Gold Coast.
“I lost both of my parents to cancer when I was young ... I met some scientists who had some good ideas,” he said.
The cracks first appeared for Mr Kollosche in 2007 when he was accused of misleading Rod and Lisa Lambert, who sued him and others, after they allegedly lost $17.2 million in a property deal — which was settled in QCAT in 2014 under confidential terms.
Mr Kollosche was agent for the Lamberts, who sold their Isle of Capri home for a property in Albatross Ave being offloaded by Mario Girardo, who two years later faced bankruptcy and was jailed for extortion.
“There seems to be a common misconception that I stopped selling real estate because I wasn’t allowed to,” he said.
“I went behind the radar because people started sensationalising stuff and it had an impact on me.
“All I did was move my focus to the other business interests that I had.”
He is “yes definitely” still friends with Daniel Tzvetkoff, 32, who is reportedly back on the Gold Coast after a stint in witness protection in the United States after helping bring down some of the world’s biggest online gambling companies.
Mr Kollosche was in Las Vegas when his friend was picked up by the FBI in 2010 — but it’s not something he was keen on discussing yesterday.
“I don’t really want to dredge up much of the past,” he said.
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