Polites Group legal fight escalates as family launch appeal to Court of Appeal over will of matriarch
The legal war embroiling one of the state’s wealthiest families has escalated to South Australia’s highest court over the late matriarch’s lucrative estate.
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The legal war embroiling one of the state’s wealthiest families has escalated to South Australia’s highest court over the late family matriarch’s lucrative estate.
Records show George Constantine Polites, 70, has launched Court of Appeal action against his nephew, Markas Salkanovic, 54, who was found guilty of attempting to import drugs.
The appeal, lodged on Friday, disputes a Supreme Court ruling this week to appoint an administrator to investigate the multimillion will of Florence Gemenis Polites, George’s late mother and Mr Salkanovic’s grandmother.
The parties declined to comment.
Mrs Polites, a great-grandmother who lived in a Glenelg nursing home after being married to property king Con for 56 years, died in March, aged 102.
The empire
The Polites Group of Companies is among SA’s biggest commercial real estate firms holding a diverse portfolio worth at least $1bn.
The company, headquartered in a King William St high-rise, owns more than 50 commercial buildings across Adelaide and Sydney.
Most are situated in the CBD along streets including King William, Hindley, Pirie, Waymouth, Flinders and Franklin as well as North Tce.
Its vast “very well positioned” properties are also dotted along popular shopping strips such as King William Rd, Hyde Park, Jetty Rd, Glenelg and Sydney’s ritzy Double Bay.
Others are in Springfield, West Beach, Somerton Park, Pasadena, Glandore and Plympton.
Company records show dozens of nondescript named companies own the family’s assets.
George Polites, whose mansion overlooks the Patawalonga River at Glenelg North, has been chief executive since his father Con died of heart failure in 2001, aged 82.
George, an “extraordinary” taekwondo champion and generous community sponsor, also once owned nightclubs Jewels and Club America venues.
The tycoon
Constantine George Polites was one of Adelaide’s most colourful moguls.
A 2011 History Trust profile reported British television presenter Tony Robinson being astonished at the famous name emblazoning blue and white city buildings.
Con was born in 1919 at Port Pirie.
Dirt poor, and barely able to speak English, his Greek parents grew and sold vegetables, fished and did “hard graft” in the local smelters.
But using a network through the local Greek community – from the Kastellorizo island off the Turkish mainland – his kingdom grew.
His first deli was bought freehold after leaving school aged 16.
He moved to Adelaide three years later, working as a Woolworths general hand in Rundle St before moving into taxis, wedding car hire and catering.
He moved to Sydney and its television, service stations and luxury vehicles.
Property came naturally after returning home in 1959.
He made his first $1m in 1964.
His best purchase? A $236,000 Rundle St property bought in 1972 and “happily” sold in 1989 for $5.3m.
Con, who once launched a search for the missing Beaumont children in the 1990s, fortuitously had a “buy and hold” strategy, rather than “flip” for profit.
Company funds were used, affordable rents ensured occupancy, historian Prof Norman Etherington said.
Once dubbed the “king of Hindley St”, Con loved Rolls Royces and smoking cigars but tired being asked about his worth: “I really don’t know. You may not believe that but it’s true.”
Con’s grave was desecrated in a macabre attack in 2016 but police lay no charges due to insufficient evidence.
The family
Con and his wife “Flo” married in 1959.
They had three children, George, Helen – Mr Salkanovic’s mother – and Evon Koumi, a lawyer, who is married to leading racehorse owner Luke.
George had four children – ear, nose and throat medical specialist Nastasia and mother of two, communications director Parisha, both in their 50s and now of Sydney.
His twin boys, father-of-three Alex and Marcus, 40, are Queensland-based property developers with projects on the Gold Coast and Bali.
“These are not trust fund sons ‘doing it tough’,” one friend said.
“The boys have forged their own path and created their own successes … without any financial help from the company.”
The seven grandchildren were close with their grandparents.
Friends say as kids their grandsons, who grew up in Queensland, visited their adored grandparents at firstly, their Pasadena mansion, and then at The Esplanade, Somerton Park at least four times a year for fortnight stints.
Mercedes College-educated Mr Salkanovic, an only child for Helen but who has a stepbrother, has been a family black sheep for years.
Estrangement arose in 2015 when he was arrested on an attempted drug import charges.
While his grandfather adored “my loveable rogue”, the patriarch was anti-drugs.
A District Court jury found Mr Salkanovic guilty in 2019 of attempting to import more than 1.3kg of pseudoephedrine — a precursor for making methylamphetamine.
He avoided immediate jail after entering a two-year, $5000 good behaviour bond.
The case
The litigation, fought amid a longstanding family feud, centres on the matriarch’s 1999 will.
The Supreme Court heard her estate, which has not been granted probate – or made legally official – had assets of more than $1.5m including shares giving a more than 40 per cent interest in the family empire that was to support her family.
But the court heard it had accrued debts worth more than $4.4m, meaning it was $2.8m in the red. George Polites, as the will’s executor, denied any wrongdoing, the hearing was told.
Justice Tim Stanley heard while Mr Salkanovic – accused in court of “abusing and harassing” relatives – was listed in his grandmother’s will, he was seeking an “urgent” new inheritance application before state law change on January 1.
Mr Salkanovic, who did not attend court, is living in a Glandore family apartment.
Marcus denied in court that he, or his brother, were assisting their cousin or wanted more inheritance.
Neither sister is involved. The twins declined to comment.
No appeal date has been set.
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Originally published as Polites Group legal fight escalates as family launch appeal to Court of Appeal over will of matriarch
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