Packers team up in Potts Point; Godfreys heiress at the head of the queue

Billionaire businesswoman and philanthropist Gretel Packer.

Billionaire businesswoman and philanthropist Gretel Packer has signed up to her younger brother and fellow billionaire James’s multimillion-dollar vision for a landmark Potts Point development, taking construction on the Macleay St site a step closer to commencement.

Gretel has signed over the right to buy two Potts Point apartments she owns in The Chimes building to a company associated with her brother, putting the development consortium on track for full ownership of the 10-storey 1960s building, which will be demolished to make way for a nine-storey building that will house 45 apartments.

The Chimes is being developed by Melbourne-based property group Time & Place, which started buying apartments in the building several years ago.

Early last year Margin Call revealed that James had taken a 10 per cent stake in the redevelopment of the building, which is at the so-called “Paris end” of Macleay Street.

Time & Place has bought some apartments outright and placed caveats over others, which is the course of action it has taken with the two apartments that Gretel has owned in the building since 2017.

Documents reveal that a company called T&P Chimes Development, via law firm Ashurst, secured an option to buy Gretel’s two apartments about a fortnight ago.

When we first reported on James taking a stake in the development project, Time & Place had either bought or secured the right to buy 75 per cent of apartments in the building.

The right to buy Gretel’s apartments takes the group even closer to the commencement of construction.

The billionaire siblings for a time had a strained relationship as negotiations unfolded over the finalisation of their late father Kerry Packer’s will, of which David Gonski and Lloyd Williams were coexecutors.

This latest transaction, however, is far from the end of Gretel’s interest in the inner eastern locale.

She now owns the top floor of the Macleay Regis building, which is nearby to The Chimes, after last year spending $9m on a two-bedroom penthouse that is adjacent to her existing three-bedroom apartment in the historic building.

It is believed she has plans to amalgamate the apartments into one spectacular abode, although there is no sign of plans yet being submitted to local authorities for planning approval.

Mum’s treat

Meantime, Gretel Packer’s heiress daughter, Francesca, has been swanning about Sydney and Melbourne in recent days from her more regular base of London.

The 29-year-old, along with her partner, controversial Byron Bay-based wellness entrepreneur Robert Bates, were courtside at Melbourne Park on the weekend for the men’s final of the Australian Open.

Bates, 42, was a young rich lister several years ago said to be worth almost $150m, but his business with ex-partner Emma Gibson has collapsed and was ordered late last year by the Federal Court to be wound up.

Francesca Packer. Picture: Jonathan Ng

But any stress of that process or having the sales program for Packer’s high-rise (but not the penthouse) five-bedroom apartment in the Harry Seidler-designed iconic Horizon building in Darlinghurst now extending into its third month wasn’t showing on the young Packer.

And this might be why.

Packer bought the whole-floor apartment, for which she is asking $32m, for $15.8m back in 2019 with assistance of a mortgage from the Bank of Mum, aka a company called Platinum Summit Pty Ltd, which the mother and daughter own 50/50.

About a year later, a second mortgage was taken out on the apartment, with finance provided by Credit Suisse, which of course has since been gobbled up by its Swiss counterpart UBS.

We expect the European giant won’t be sweating on getting its money back ASAP via any sale as the Packer women, no doubt, are a low credit risk.

Bates, on the other hand, likely a different story.

Belly up

Expect low-profile, septuagenarian Sydney millionaire Jane Allen to be at the front of the queue of creditors lining up to extract what they are owed by failed vacuum cleaner retailer Godfreys when administrators from PwC hold their first meeting next week.

Allen is the 73-year-old daughter of Godfreys co-founder John Johnston, who passed away aged 100 in 2018 and could be owed more than $31m by the company, which was placed into the hands of administrators on Tuesday.

Allen, who lives in a luxury apartment overlooking the harbour in Cremorne, is not a director of Godfreys, which is owned by a company called Arcade Finance.

Arcade is owned by Plougastel Holdings, of which Allen is a director and sole shareholder.

A vehicle called 1918 Finance, which is also ultimately owned by Plougastel, provided the struggling retailer with a $30m secured loan that by the end of FY22 was fully drawn, in fact, overdrawn with Godfreys owing 1918 Finance (ultimately Allen) $31.3m.

Godfreys was provided with a $30m secured loan that by the end of FY22 had been completely drawn down.

Accounts reveal that in FY22 Godfreys had breached one of the loan’s covenants, which the family kindly waived, but directors did not provide a going concern warning as to the financial future of the group.The five-year facility, which had a 6 per cent rate of interest, was set to expire at the end of June 2023. Godfreys did not submit accounts to the corporate regulator for the most recent financial year.

Ongoing losses set the scene for little to none to have been paid back to Allen as lender since then. So look for the heiress to be claiming north of $31m from any realisation of assets, with the Australian Taxation Office likely second in line.

PwC will hold a creditors’ meeting next Friday.