Is this Brisbane’s most expensive tennis court?
A year ago a munitions boss purchased the house next door to his Ascot mansion for a cool $2m to make room for a new tennis court, but that move appears to have been eclipsed by the actions of this Brisbane rich-lister. See what he spent.
A new candidate for Brisbane’s most expensive tennis court has emerged.
Last year munitions boss Robert Nioa and his family purchased the house next door to their Ascot mansion for a cool $2m to make room for a new tennis court.
Now former Swissport boss Glenn Rutherford has done something similar in nearby Sutherland Ave, purchasing the house next door to his sprawling $11m abode for a tennis court complex.
Rutherford purchased the adjacent property in November 2018 for $3m soon after moving into Domino’s Pizza boss Don Meij’s old pad in the blue-ribbon neighbourhood that includes beef king Trevor Lee and his designer wife Keri-Craig Lee. Rutherford applied to the Brisbane City Council to build the tennis court at the back of the property and transform the old Queenslander on the site into a kind of recreational pavilion. We hear Rutherford may have more time to hit a few balls around this year after announcing he was leaving Swissport after more than two decades.
Tennis court builders are reporting their busiest time for more than 50 years as people in some of Brisbane’s most salubrious suburbs fall back in love with the game or eye a future Wimbledon title for their offspring.
The reversal of a few years back when people were trying to get rid of their courts. The option to knock down an existing house in inner-city Brisbane is rare because of prohibitions on demolishing buildings built before 1945. Spinks & Co Residential, which specialises in the sale of homes with tennis courts, says demand in the niche market continued to soar.
Spinks & Co founder Rachael Spinks said several tennis court homes sold for more than $10m over the past year. “There is lot of interest this time of the year because of the Australian Open is on,” says Spinks. She says people buying such properties usually played tennis and wanted their children to play a family sport together.
COFFEE KINGS
The apple does not fall far from the tree for coffee king Phillip Di Bella.
Di Bella’s 12-year-old son Arlee has teamed up with two mates from Churchie, Rocko and Cristiano, to develop their own coffee business.
What started out as a school holiday activity has developed into a fully-fledged operation with the boys launching their first coffee blend A. R. C at The Coffee Commune in Bowen Hills.
“A. R. C is our first names abbreviated,” says Arlee. “We supply coffee blends with our first one called A.R.C. Reserve and it’s very delicious.” The idea for the coffee business began when the three young friends visited The Coffee Commune over the school holidays.
Cristiano says the mates visited the Coffee Commune initially to relax and have lunch. “Phil came up with the idea of starting our own business,” says Cristiano. “It was just going to be a school holiday project, but it eventually expanded through a meeting between the three of us.”
Now the boys are already light years ahead of some industry professionals, having roasted, packaged and sold dozens of bags within their first week. Phillip Di Bella says the venture is a good way to get kids away from computers and develop some real business skills.
LAW AND ORDER
Brisbane-based legal eagles Alexandra Feros, Jeremy Horwood, Clare Corke and Helen Clarke are popping the champagne after the successful listing of Tritium on Nasdaq earlier this month. The lawyers from Corrs Chambers Westgarth advised the electric vehicle charging company on all aspects of the transaction that is set to be one of the biggest deals in Australia this year. Feros says she was honoured to mark the significant achievement for Brisbane-based Tritium. “Leveraging expertise from across Corrs has been integral to the success of this complex transaction,“ says Feros. ”We look forward to seeing the future success of Tritium as a Nasdaq-listed entity.”
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