Fallen foul-mouthed Victorian Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek has quietly resurfaced with his name pinging across mobile phone screens at Spring Street and beyond.
Somyurek, who was exposed in mid-June in covert recordings obtained by 60 Minutes and Nine Entertainment’s metropolitan mastheads, opted to use a more secure form of communication.
The pings informed his contacts he had signed up to Signal, a nifty app that allows users to send encrypted messages. They can be text, pictures and audio and video messages.
Last month, in an apparent sting operation, Somyurek starred in explosive recordings aired on 60 Minutes, at one point calling Victoria’s Women and the Prevention of Family Violence Minister Gabrielle Williams a “stupid bitch” and several other expletive-laden names which we won’t repeat here.
Best keep that sort of talk secure, or even better, not say such things at all.
The perfect set
The Boyd penthouse in Sydney’s CBD is the palpable star of the must-watch Channel 7 television drama series Between Two Worlds.
It’s the luxurious three-level apartment set atop ANZ Tower that’s for sale through Christie’s International agent Ken Jacobs and LJ Hooker’s Bill Malouf. Margin Call reckons its showcasing will prompt a flurry of buyer interest for the $66m offering with its art deco styling by the go-to interior decorator Blainey North.
The drama, which premieres at 8.30pm on Sunday, is about Phillip Walford, a billionaire tycoon who seeks to dominate his wife and family as he faces his mortality.
Apparently Channel 7 sent in its corporate lawyer and fixer Bruce McWilliam to persuade the penthouse owners, John and Marly Boyd,to make Sydney’s most palatial apartment available for filming last year.
The other stellar location in the opening minutes of the 10-part series is the luxurious waterfront Point House at Newport. It’s been owned since 2008 by Brook Adcock, the founder of Adcock Private Equity. The Prince Alfred Parade property is a $7500-a-night rental through the Cocoon Luxury website.
It was the Cheung family who bought the 1500sq m holding on Pittwater in 1990 for $1.7m with the home’s construction costing $5m. Adcock spent $14.6m on the dress circle, seven-bedroom home when it was sold by entrepreneur Louis Carroll in 2008.
The film locations were found by industry veteran Phillip Roope, along with Daniel Power and Anthony Marano, who ended up cast as Walford’s chauffeur in the much-featured Pitt Street garage lobby.
Across town is the portrayal of the middle class Grey family whose suburban world collides with the Walfords’. Plenty of AFL to snare Melbourne audiences. The Greys’ abode is a terrific 1960s Californian-style house, located at St Ives, with stone feature wall, Canadian cedar panelling and central courtyard.
The series by the Seven Studios, created by Bevan Lee, sees young stars Tom Dalzell, Alex Cubis and Megan Hajjar on the screen, alongside veterans including Andrew McFarlane, Hermione Norris, Sara Wiseman and Aaron Jeffery.
Lee says the Grey world is a little bit like the Rafters and the Walford world is like Sons & Daughters, but on steroids.
Malls mauled
Counting the cost
The impact of the pandemic on retail landlords is emerging on balance sheet updates to shareholders. Vicinity put out their latest shopping centre valuations with their giant Chadstone marked down by $250m.
That means billionaire John Gandel is also down $250m as he owns a half-share.
It reflects a 7.5 per cent drop in value as at June 30.
The centre, still worth $6.2bn, has some 530 stores and 233,243sq m in space.
Vicinity announced an 11 per cent valuation decline across its portfolio. Customer visitation across its portfolio has been running at 68 per cent of the same time last year, with 83 per cent of stores trading. Its chief Grant Kelley says conditions across Australia will continue to improve, aside from Victoria. The customer visitation figures sits at 80 per cent, with 95 per cent of stores trading, once Victoria is take out of the calculation.
Museum opening
Only 47 per cent of Australia’s arts and recreation businesses are still trading, which the ABS calculated in April as the lowest numbers of any industry. So it’s welcome news Australian-Chinese billionaire Dr Chau Chak Wing’smuseum at the University of Sydney, to be known as the Chau Chak Wing Museum, is set to open on November 18.
It follows his $15m donation to create a cultural landmark.
One of its first displays will feature the business of photography in the 19th century. It looks at the pioneering commercial opportunities of photography that arose when Sydney’s first photographic studio opened in 1842, from the travelling photographer with a portable darkroom extending into large-scale industrial enterprises. Commercial photographers established a bigger presence as prosperity grew after the 1850s gold rushes.
Now it’s pretty much all about the iPhone.
The museum will open with 18 exhibitions over five levels, bringing the university’s Nicholson, Macleay and art collections under one roof. Entry will be free.
“Now more than ever it is crucially important that we continue to support the preservation and exhibition of arts and culture, so that we continue to nourish those who may be inspired to become the artistic innovators and history-makers a post-COVID world will need,” he said.
The hopes are for 200,000 annual visitors.
Radio rights
Radio rights
Mini media tycoon Craig Hutchison’sPacific Star Network fell short in its $1.5m rights offer. As part of its $3.5m capital raising, the company which owns Melbourne’s SEN network offered shareholders up to 6.8 million new shares at an issue price of 22c.
The offer closed with just $405,000 worth of shares sold. The remaining five million new shares were issued to the underwriter Viburnum Funds.
Viburnum, which previously owned about 22 per cent of the company, is backed by Rhonda Wyllie, wife of television industry veteran Jeff Browne.
The fully underwritten raising was to help fund the acquisition of Sydney’s 2CH radio station.
Cup cruise
Cup cruise
Pack the face mask rather than the fascinator. There are still cabins being flogged online for the annual P&O cruises to this year’s Melbourne Cup, although it seems interstate passengers aren’t jumping at the prospect of attending Amanda Elliott’sSpring Racing Carnival.
The online packages that include two nights at Station Pier come with the long shot chance of mingling in the crowd on the November 3 race day.
The cruise offering sits among what was the Carnival Corporation’s record 2020 schedule. Carnival recently announced it is now downsizing its worldwide fleet by nine ships. It has raised $US10bn ($14.4bn) to keep the business afloat.
Meanwhile, Racing Victoria has ruled jockeys will be required to wear a face mask at all times while on course, except when on horseback. They don’t have to be the same as their racing colours. RV chief executive Giles Thompson is still working to allow international horses to get here with travel exemptions to get them into the Werribee quarantine station. Lord North and Circus Maximum could come for the Cox Plate, and there’s a hope Stradivarius could come down too. The quarantine decision needs to be made by early August.
Disharmony in Milgrom family over Teals, Climate 200 backing
Sussan Group owner Naomi Milgrom has distanced herself from the investment company run by her three children that has poured money into Simon Homes a Court’s Climate 200 movement.
Cranbrook old boys clash over Luxe Listings deal
A court stoush featuring two private school boys, a hit TV show and an old gangster? Throw in some fast cars and rhyming slang and you’ve surely got the makings of a major movie.