Business Sydney boss reveals ambitious plan to transform CBD living
The son of Greek immigrants who lost his political dreams has become Sydney's ultimate powerbroker, with an ambitious vision to revolutionise the city's heart. Watch the High Steaks interview.
Paul Nicolaou isn’t a household name, but his role in the life of Sydney is cardinal.
The son of Greek immigrants who wanted to be a politician but spent most of his working life in public affairs and advocacy has worked his way through some of the more challenging roles in business.
“I used to do all the fundraising for the Liberal Party, raising money and bringing business leaders into the political process,” he says.
“And then I became CEO of the Australian Hotels Association, hence my grey hair, defending alcohol smoking and gambling.”
But in 2021, as Sydney lurched from lockdown to lockdown, he took on the role of executive director of Business Sydney, the advocacy group for businesses in the city.
The Business Sydney website says the organisation’s role is to advocate for Sydney as a global, competitive and liveable city by influencing economic growth and creating opportunities for businesses to invest, work and thrive.
It would be more appropriate to describe Nicolaou’s role as Sydney’s biggest hype man.
You are unlikely to find anyone more enthusiastic, in general, but specifically about Sydney.
Nicolaou talks at a million miles an hour, even when discussing what sides we will have with our expertly cooked Alfie’s steak (green beans, charred cos and fries as it turns out, and a surprise serving of asparagus we hadn’t ordered but deeply appreciated).
But get him talking about Sydney and that’s when things really ramp up.
“Anything I can do … working together, connecting people together, if the benefit and the result is going to benefit Sydney in some shape or form, that’s my KPI,” he says.
“My KPI in life is to be successful in bringing people together and making sure that Sydney remains the number one city in Australia, if not around the world.”
Looking at that statement, it could easily be written off as the weasel words of a lifetime lobbyist, but the reality when it is happening before you is that it is genuine enthusiasm from someone who loves the city he lives in.
I ask him if Sydney is the greatest city in the world:
“Yeah, it is,” he says without a beat. “Where else would you want to live. We’ve got the golden ticket. We’re so lucky because we have got the arts and the culture, and the harbour and the beaches and the food
“So, we’re lucky that what we’ve got what we have got. It may not be 100 per cent perfect but, at the end of the day, it is better than most places around the world.”
Nicolaou would be an extraordinary politician. He knows everyone and takes immense joy in connecting people with those he thinks they should know.
Anyone who has been to one of Business Sydney’s events would have seen the way he works a room pulling one person to another and starting their conversation before slipping away to make the next introduction.
He does it at events that aren’t arranged by him too. At the recent Everest race at Randwick, I watched in awe, and later reported, how he seemed to know every single person in the room and all of them wanted to talk to him.
State arts, music, transport and everything else minister John Graham backed up that assertion at a recent event – a Labour minister endorsing a one-time Liberal fundraiser.
But his two runs at politics were both unsuccessful – the first in 2003 for the seat of Ryde that timed in with John Howard’s decision to send troops to Iraq, the second in the seat of Pittwater when opposition leader John Brogden was forced to resign over ‘dishonourable behaviour’.
Nicolaou only lost by 400 votes, but it was enough to put his political ambitions to rest.
“After that I realised, you know, this is not me,” he said.
Instead he puts his back into things that will improve the city and by virtue of that improve the viability of businesses in the city.
His current cause du jour is getting more people living in the CBD.
“I’d bring in more people to live in the city. When you compare Sydney to London, Athens, New York, they’ve got over millions of people living in their city. We’ve only got 30,000 people who actually live in the postcode 2000,” he said.
“We’re very keen to increase it to around 200,000 because what we’re seeing now is a lot of people don’t come in on a Monday or a Friday because they’re working from home, so in order to supplement the foot traffic that a lot of retail, hospitality and tourism organisations desperately need, we need more people in the city.”
But the enduring cause he has been behind is ending homelessness in the city. He has personally raised more than half a million dollars for the cause.
“We’re spending $1.2 billion fixing up the Reserve Bank building in our city,” he says.
“What’s the priority? The Heritage Reserve Bank building or the 364 people that sleep rough on our streets? Yes, it’s not as bad as New York or San Francisco, or other places around the world, where they have large numbers of people sleeping rough on the streets, but I believe we can resolve that problem for us.”
We had originally set aside an hour for lunch, and suddenly it is two hours later. My steak has long been demolished and I think I have taken up enough of his time when he suggests we get dessert.
It’s impossible to say no to a baked mousse with creme fraiche and a burnt butter sauce, but it is also impossible, it turns out, to say no to Paul Nicolaou.
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Originally published as Business Sydney boss reveals ambitious plan to transform CBD living
