Tim Gurner’s penthouse sale slows; Devil’s in the detail for Tassie AFL team

The St Moritz apartment complex in St Kilda.

Melbourne property tycoon Tim Gurner is yet to sell out his St Moritz apartment complex in St Kilda. The man’s got drama coming out of his ears with billionaire Alex Waislitz and Antony Catalano expressing dissatisfaction with the apartments they purchased in the building. On top of that, Gurner’s own penthouse – worth $15m – doesn’t seem to be attracting much interest on market.

Regardless, we hear Gurner’s trying to expand the value of yet another development he’s got going in the historic Jam Factory site in Melbourne’s South Yarra, asking that it be raised by $123m. That’s from an original build cost in the ballpark of $500m.

Gurner and his latest development partners, Qualitas and Newmark Capital, want to amend their plans for the five-tower Jam Factory precinct.

They’ve lodged a fresh application for planning approval, so we’ll see how that pans out (the first draft was met with hundreds of objections).

Newmark Capital will deliver and retain ownership of the commercial and retail side of the site, while Gurner and Qualitas get the luxury residential and five-star hotel component.

Meanwhile, we’re hearing neither Catalano nor Waislitz have settled on those St Moritz apartments just yet. Margin Call reported in March that the pair were expressing severe displeasure with the quality of the finishes.

That said, we’re hearing a resolution could be close. Just a few more touch-ups required.

Devil in the detail

All eyes are on newly anointed AFL boss Andrew Dillon and outgoing incumbent Gillon McLachlan as they move swiftly to create a 19th team for the code in Tasmania. We hear McLachlan will be wheels down in the Apple Isle as early as Wednesday.

And it turns out the local powerbrokers have already grubbed up the scaffolding for a corporate structure.

Margin Call hears the club’s directors will be Virgin Australia co-founder Brett Godfrey, Tourism Tasmania chair Grant O’Brien (a former Woolworths executive), and property developer Errol Stewart.

Accounting firm Deloitte is on-board fiddling with logistics, at least part of which concerns the prospective name of the team. “Tasmania Devils” is the working title, with that trademark pending.

Andrew Dillon will take over as AFL boss.

Here’s where it gets complicated: the Tasmania Football Club already has a team known by the extremely similar sounding Tasmanian Devils, whose name and logo has been theirs since 2004. The trademark on that is up for renewal next year.

Another headache: US entertainment giant Warner Bros has had dibs on “Tasmanian Devil”, including naming and imaging rights, since 1982. Then there’s the Tasmanian Cricket Association – they’re the keepers of the Tasmanian Tigers.

It doesn’t leave much room for creativity, but as far as we can tell no one has jumped on the Tasmanian Thylacines. It’s got a ring to it, no?

Tasmanian Wolf is also free.

 

Tin ear on the voice

“Help stop Labor’s Voice” was the subject line of a fundraising plea dispatched by the Liberal Party to its most prized corporate donors on Tuesday.

In typically lazy fashion, party hucksters used the mailing list of the Australian Business Network – the Liberals corporate donor vehicle – to grovel for cash. Never mind that many of the companies they were appealing to have very publicly asserted their support for the voice, rendering the exercise completely idiotic.

Laying out their argument, the email said: “The Liberal Party room took the view that (Anthony) Albanese’s proposal is badly designed and wrong in principle. But mounting this argument in the face of celebrity and corporate support for the “yes” campaign will be difficult.”

Representatives at NAB are understood to have received the email, despite the bank’s unequivocal commitment to “pledge support” for the referendum question.

It also went out to officials at PwC, ANZ, and Bupa – and yes, they are all publicly supporting the Albanese government’s model for the voice.

Allegra agenda

Teal independent Allegra Spender was elected to parliament on a commitment to address a slew of urgent priorities. There was the “honest politics” of donations reform, a national anti-corruption commission, the voice, of course, and the take-up of renewable energy.

Is she already running out of steam? Spender appeared before a House Economics Committee hearing on Tuesday and gave evidence from what looked like her office, a white board positioned behind her listing her priorities for the year. It wasn’t a long list.

Allegra Spender’s whiteboard is in the spotlight.

Under the heading of Community 2023, we were able to establish just two numbered points – “tax” and “voice”, with “climate” no where to be seen. No mention either of “cost of living”, “housing”, or even “superannuation” for the impoverished retirees of Wentworth. We asked Spender to explain but didn’t receive a response.

Pollies cop it sweet

NSW’s newly-sworn police minister Yasmin Catley was no adoring fan of David Elliott while he held the same portfolio during Gladys Berejiklian’s term as premier.

It was Catley in 2020 who called on Berejiklian to sack Elliott as a minister after he was caught brandishing a submachine gun at a firing range and posted photographs of the alleged illegality onto his Facebook page. Catley was Labor’s deputy leader at the time.

NSW’s newly-sworn police minister Yasmin Catley. Picture: Richard Dobson

“No one is above the law, and that is why the Premier must show leadership and she must sack him today for this illegal activity,” Catley thundered. Elliott’s flubs and indiscretions were about as common as house dust, and it was basically Catley’s job to try claim his scalp from opposition.

But how the times have changed! Margin Call has learned that Catley put aside time in her diary for a private meeting with Elliott on Tuesday, with the pair spotted in discussion at District Brasserie in Martin Place.

Was it a debrief on the state’s politically-riven constabulary? Tips on how to manage the factions?

“Just friends catching up,” Elliott tells us.