Viruses come and go, but the lunch bunch has to eat

Toppi in Sydney’s Martin Place. Picture: John Appleyard

The luncheon venues have certainly been quieter across Sydney’s CBD over the past week.

But old timers were saying it’s not quite as bad as during the 1998 giardia contaminated-water scare, when you couldn’t get an ice cube in your gin and tonic.

Fortuitously, before the 500-plus crowd rule announcement, Friday’s 2020 Lansdowne Club St Patrick’s Day lunch — which was attended by Irish Ambassador to Australia Breandan O Caollai — just got in with their sell-out lunch at the International Convention Centre. Toppi, the newly opened Italian restaurant at 60 Martin Place, was also busy at lunch yesterday despite being located just underneath Norton Rose Fulbright, the law firm hit by a coronavirus scare on Thursday.

It seems despite the enforced stay-at-home absence of many at the law firm, there was a cheerful gathering of Norton Rose partners downstairs for Friday lunch. Seems two of their seven floors had avoided the coronavirus quarantine.

The eastern suburbs Bell Potter Securities stockbroker Les Owens remains in isolation, but is said to be sending cheerful texts and emails.

His last known public meal was being tracked by NSW Health Department officials: probably last weekend at the Justin Hemmes’ Merivale institution Mr Wong where Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson were fellow diners.

Ever-confident Seven executive Bruce McWilliam was dining at Mr Wong yesterday.

Bell Potter stockbrokers were back at their Aurora Place screens watching the day’s sharemarket rollercoaster. But none seemed to have the time or inclination for lunch.

Rockpool sent out an email that customers could dine with confidence given their “strict wellness policy”. It was headed “Ensuring our restaurants are safe.”

The CBD streets were quiet with traffic very light coming into the city, given the escalating “working from home” trend. But for the aggressive dealmakers that’s the new euphemism for doing a deal on the golf course on Fridays. After all, they are all keen for their bonuses to roll around.

Toppi in Martin Place. Picture: John Appleyard

Strop sells out

Entertainment industry legends John ‘‘Strop’’ Cornell and his wife Delvene Delaney, who were Paul Hogan’s sidekicks in their comedic heyday, have finally sold out of their vast Belongil Beach compound.

John "Strop" Cornell, Paul Hogan and Delvene Delaney.

Their last hinterland-based Byron Bay lots were secured by the family of former McGrath franchisee turned developer Shane Smollen, who sold his estate agencies on Sydney’s northern beaches before the 2015 ASX McGrath float.

The website of his advisers’ EAC Partners put Smollen’s windfall as $70m, mostly in cash but also in shares that have been partly sold down.

The 2090sq m Belongil acquisition through LJ Hooker agent Glen Irwin was by Smollen’s wife, Rebecca, the blogger whose glamorous style attracts 40,000 Instagram followers.

The couple have called Tamarama home since 2011 when they bought from the banker and now Bank of Queensland chief executive George Frazis.

Cornell and Delaney had bought their 2.3 acre compound from the developer Peter Kurts in 1987 for $375,000.

“With no continuing business interests in Byron Bay, we are releasing our remaining real estate holdings there for others to enjoy,” Delvene said on its listing.

They sold the main home to retail scion Glen Norman for $10m.

It is now a luxury Airbnb rental, fetching $5500 a night.

Belongil Beach has seen celebrity buyers over recent years, including chef Shannon Bennett.

Fair share

Amid a wild week on the sharemarket the Nine board have been quiet on the share acquisition front as their stocks wane, but self-acclaimed digital operator Mickie Rosen, who joined the board following the Fairfax merger, has taken advantage.

The Japanese-born director who joined Fairfax in 2017 built her career with McKinsey & Company from the early 1990s.

The Harvard MBA graduate has snapped up 60,000 shares at $1.34 apiece, paying just over $80,000. Nine shares got to as low as $1.12 yesterday before finishing at $1.34. She bought her first lot of 20,000 Nine shares late last year when they were trading at $1.75. Rosen now has more than Samantha Lewis, chair of the audit and risk management committee, who has 60,000 shares.

Nine chief Hugh Marks did well when he offloaded 700,000 shares last September, to “satisfy personal tax obligations arising from previous share issues”.

They were worth just shy of $1.4m, but Marks would have only netted $815,000 at yesterday’s low.

He retains over 2.3 million shares, with another 2.6 million subject to meeting specific vesting conditions. His predecessor David Gyngell had 3.2 million shares, according to the last annual report, down from the 4.9 million on his 2018 departure.

Chairman Peter Costello holds 300,001 shares, held by Phomadse Pty Ltd, trustee for the Costello family, since 2016.

Home and contents

Bon vivant Graeme Webb has sold Wollogorang, his Goulburn district property, so the contents have been listed for April auction through Shapiro Auctioneers.

Webb and his late wife Janet Alstergren were regular buyers at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, so there are wonderful artworks on the walls of the heritage Breadalbane home.

Andrew Shapiro tells Margin Call that the largest work is by Jenny Watson, and was included in her MCA retrospective. “It is an amazing work,” he said. The estimate is $20,000 to $30,000.

Peter Kingston, John Firth-Smith, Sidney Nolan and Linda Marion are other offerings.

It seems Webb, who intends spending more time in London where his son Alexander lives, won’t be taking an amazing cowboy lamp nor the Mirka Mora doll.

From Janet’s parents, of Toorak’s pioneering timber milling family, are superb pieces of 18th Century English furniture.

And there is a Regency clock which the couple purchased at the Lindesay antique show in the 1980s. Colfax and Fowler is everywhere.

Wollogorang, the centre of the Chisholm’s 19th century pastoral empire, was built by English sea captain Henry Edenborough in the 1840s.

It has been sold off-market to a family friend by Webb who bought it after selling the nearby Georgian mansion Kippilaw in 1997.

It is not to be confused with Wollogorang, the 567,000ha Gulf of Carpentaria farm, which the ball bearing billionaire Xingfa Ma recently sold to the McMillan pastoral family.

Power shift

Good to see CBA boss Matt Comyn was among the big movers on The Daily Telegraph’s annual Sydney Power 100 List released Friday. He jumped from last place in the 2019 list to 70th after seeing through the worst of the banking royal commission.

CBA CEO Matt Comyn. Picture: John Feder.

Despite being the second richest on the list, the Israeli-based former Westfield founder Frank Lowy dropped 13 places to 25.

There were new entrants including dumpster tycoon Ian Malouf.

The new Channel 7 boss James Warburton came in at 68, not quite enough to lift him above radio jock Kyle Sandilands and his mate John Ibrahim. Channel 9’s Hugh Marks was at 35.

There were many departures including the REINSW boss Leanne Pilkington, ALP politician Chris Bowen and former PMs Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott.

Nick Politis jumped 28 places to 64 after he backed Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s $800 million Allianz Stadium rebuild plans.

And the one to watch is clearly Dominic Perrottet, the state treasurer, jumping 83 spots to 11th place, mooted as the state’s next premier.

Staging an exit

The theatrical couple Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton are abandoning Sydney, listing their little-used Sydney bolthole as they prefer the English countryside.

Actress Cate Blanchett is selling up. Picture: AP

Their 1920s Astor apartment has $12m hopes. Originally three apartments, the two-storey Macquarie Street space was once home to entertainer Barry Humphries and later mortgage broker Mark Bouris.

The home has more than 400sq m space, with views over the Domain.

It was bought after their Hunters Hill home, Bulwarra, sold for $18m in 2017. They have also sold their Berowra Waters weekender.

The Astor is the 12-storey complex that once dominated not only the skyline but Sydney society.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge engineer Lawrence Ennis would look through his telescope to check on the progress of the bridge’s construction from his rental in what was Sydney’s highest residential building until 1960.

Over the years its has been home to former Treasury secretary John Fraser, adman Harold Mitchell, the late Pioneer founder Sir Tristan Antico and style-setting adman John Nankervis and his then wife Amanda.

The Blanchett-Uptons retain an investment apartment on Elizabeth Bay’s harbourfront, but reside at Highwell House in the East Sussex countryside.