Property developer gives back to nation that offered hope
PHILLIP Wolanski has experienced success as a prominent Sydney property developer.
PHILLIP Wolanski may have experienced success as a prominent Sydney property developer, but close to his mind will always be the agony his parents experienced losing their relatives in the Holocaust, and their rags-to-riches story.
"It is important to be successful, but it is important to do something with that success," he says.
Wolanski is a Sydney-based developer who owns a stable of properties, including hotels and residential and commercial developments, through his Denwol group of companies.
He entered the industry after working with his father, Dennis, who died 20 years ago.
Wolanski helped to expand the business his parents created before eventually taking it over from them in the 1970s.
His Polish-born father survived the Nazi occupation of Warsaw before migrating to Australia via Paris in 1950. He learnt skills as a shirt designer and cutter in Paris, then landed a job in Sydney with Club Shirts.
Soon he had invented the Lido clip-on tie and, like his Jewish contemporaries such as Westfield billionaire founder Frank Lowy, the late businessman and philanthropist Isador Magid and billionaire Meriton founder Harry Triguboff, the late Dennis Wolanski became a prominent businessman and owner of a successful retail empire.
Phillip Wolanski's late mother, Sabina Wolanski, whose story features in her published memoir, Destined To Live, was a successful businesswoman in her own right and was very much a part of the Lido success story, he says.
She too survived the Holocaust, while her family perished.
The need for a factory in Sydney for the Lido business propelled the late Dennis Wolanski into the property business, with the purchase of a factory on Sydney's Kent Street, which was developed into Lido House.
"Dad was an investor and developer and the business developed from there," he says.
Wolanski has most recently turned his attention to a new hotel development at Sydney international airport, expected to be completed next year.
It's a project he is embarking on with hotel industry veteran David Baffsky and solicitor John Landerer, adding to a portfolio that includes a Formule 1 hotel on Sydney's William Street and at the Sydney domestic airport. He also owns a hotel at Darwin airport.
"We are always looking at opportunities," he says. "We do most ourselves, but we can't do everything. If I do something with investors or joint-venture partners they are generally people who I have a long-standing association with, that is friends and associates."
Hotels can provide strong opportunities, he says, but as with anything, it depends on having the right locations and parameters and also the financial aspects.
He chooses upmarket Sydney locations, such as Elizabeth Bay, for his residential developments, and says the residential property market still offers opportunities, despite planning issues.
He is now embarking on residential projects at Bronte in Sydney's eastern suburbs and Manly on the city's northern beaches.
The Bronte project involves mid-range homes, while the Manly development, which is being undertaken as a joint venture, is a mix of houses, townhouses, and apartments on a 2.7ha site -- about 37 dwellings in total.
While not overly optimistic about the top end of the residential market, he sees opportunities in other segments.
"The upper end has come off and I don't think prices are going to run away," he says.
"But with the interest rate environment, and the desire and need for housing, I think there is always going to be a need."
One of the benefits of his firm, he says, is that it is flexible and therefore opportunistic. "We are very flexible and can go to where the best place to be is."
However, he is likely to remain predominantly a Sydney developer because he knows the market.
"I believe in Sydney -- I live here, and generally it is an old saying: it is nice to be able to see what you are doing."
As well as property, Wolanski is passionate about supporting sports and the arts.
He was made a Member (AM) in the general division of the Order of Australia in the Queen's birthday honours in June 2008, for services to the community through executive roles and contributions to a range of arts, sporting and cultural organisations.
He is a director of Football Federation Australia, of which Lowy is chairman, and travels with the Socceroos as the head of delegation. Wolanski has also had a long association with the Sydney Opera House, with the Wolanski Foundation for many years sponsoring the Opera House library, which was closed in 1997.
Previously he was a director of the National Institute of Dramatic Art. He is also a member of the governing committee of the Temora Aviation Museum.
"When you have some success in a country you need to help others and give back to the country and society that has been good to you," Wolanski says.
"My parents came from a place that had no future to a place that gave them a massive future.
"This country gave them a whole new life and future."
