The former soccer star, the $68m debt and a road to nowhere

Until recently, Rene Licata seemed to be the epitome of success. A former Young Socceroo, he drove a Maserati, lived in a glamorous contemporary house in Burraneer, and headed up boutique developer Manta Group, spearheading his long-held vision for a grand town centre and residential development at Middleton Grange, bang in the heart of the Western Sydney Growth Area.

But things have gone awry. The property developer of which he was chief executive and a major shareholder has been placed into receivership, his Maserati hasn’t been seen in months, and the title to the family home is laden with a second mortgage, court orders and four caveats to protect loans from other lenders.

Renee Licata and the site of the Middleton Grange development.Credit: Marija Ercegovac/Steven Siewert

What’s more, the town centre’s supermarket, medical centre, pub, childcare facility, and hundreds of apartments earmarked for the 7.9-hectare site are yet to materialise.

But if Licata is daunted, he doesn’t sound like it. As he and his wife, Liberal Party powerhouse Marie Simone, await a buyer for their contemporary four-bedroom home – it was listed six months ago for $3 million but is now $2.9 million – he says he’s already planning his comeback.

“Watch this space,” he said. “I’m a fighter. I’ve been involved in this project from the start, since 2002. It’s had many setbacks, but I’ve created something very special, and I plan to finish it.”

Licata declined to reveal what funding arrangements he had to cover his comeback, saying only that for sentimental reasons, he plans to buy back the development’s remaining lots once the administrators are no longer in control.

What the Middleton Grange development currently looks like.Credit: Steven Siewert

It won’t be cheap. Manta Group was placed into administration with debts of more than $68 million, up from the project’s original $26 million in financing from a different lender.

What’s more, it wasn’t just the debt burden that prompted Alceon Finance to call in administrators but also a bitter falling out among the group’s six directors and seven shareholders.

And in the decade since Manta Group bought the site for $19.8 million from the De Angelis hotelier family, there’s not a lot of building work to show for itself. Instead of the proposed eight residential towers and commercial blocks, there are only a few roads, footpaths and street lights.

Licata blames council red tape, zoning issues, consultancy reports and COVID-related supply issues for the cost blowout.

What the Middleton Grange development is supposed to look like when it is completed.

Licata and Simone have shrugged off adversity previously. They are both former bankrupts known for their matching his and hers Maseratis, and Simone made headlines in 2021 when she was nominated, unsuccessfully, for local Liberal party pre-selection.

Her nomination was likely marred by revelations that on her official form, she had ticked “no” when asked if she had been engaged in any business involving property development in the past seven years.

At the time Simone was a co-director with Licata of the family company that was a major shareholder in Manta Group. Simone maintained she declared the interest on a separate form.

The member for Cook Simon Kennedy (left) with fellow Liberal Party member Rene Licata.Credit: Facebook

Meanwhile, the couple’s former home, a two-bedroom house on a busy street in Woolooware, was sold in 2023 for $1.76 million to corporate interests ultimately owned by Ahmed Alkhoshaibi, chief executive of United Arab Emirates mega-developer Arada.

In a case of happy coincidence, that same Woolooware house resold late last year for $2.04 million to a company owned by Licata and Simone’s long-time associate Matt Daniel, a controversial mover and shaker among Liberal Party types in southern Sydney.

Daniel is a town planner and director of Pacific Planning, which is listed on Manta Group’s administrator’s report as owed $24,245.

Daniel’s latest work on behalf of Manta Group was to lodge an amendment to the subdivision of Middleton Grange town centre. However, the panel rejected it last week, citing the unconventional plans could potentially leave some blocks landlocked.

All is not lost for the Middleton Grange town centre, however. Investment firm Alceon Finance has vowed to push ahead with the project, appointing its own expert consultants to project manage the completion of the civil works with the administrators.

Two of the project’s major commercial lots – one flagged as a supermarket and another as a potential hotel – have already sold.

The civil work is expected to be complete in the second half of this year ready for sale to a new developer to take over the project.

Alceon’s involvement in Middleton Grange goes back to a land and civil works loan facility of late 2022, by which time the town centre had already secured the first tick of approval by the local planning panel for 671 apartments across eight buildings.

Among the many setbacks faced by the project was a 2019 protest by locals when hundreds of objections were lodged over the project’s initial size and scale.

An artist’s impression of the proposed Middleton Grange town centre, still with no DA for the town centre.Credit: Liverpool City Council

As a result, the planning controls were amended in 2022 to limit the number of apartments to more than 600, reduce the heights from 11 storeys to eight, and double the amount of public space available.

There is no development application approval for the town centre.

As well as the $68.39 million owed to Alceon as the secured lender, there is an outstanding $778,000 land tax bill and $18,800 owed to Liverpool Council, according to the report lodged by administrator Costa Nicodemou of Newpoint Advisory.

Company records indicate that more than $3 million is owed to the interests of Licata and former co-director Obaida Al Hassan. Licata said the money is for work they undertook on the project over the past decade.

Licata wouldn’t reveal if he still has his black Maserati, but sources say Simone is reduced to driving a red Mini Cooper, albeit a limited edition 37.

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