Kestelman’s art of building businesses

The developer has a lofty vision which includes creating Australia’s most luxurious property — ‘The Tower of Power’.

Larry Kestelman and David Bromley, who is the artist-in-residence for Kestelman’s new $800m building in Melbourne’s South Yarra. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Artist David Bromley quotes Andy Warhol when it comes to discussing how the art and business worlds mix together.

“Making money is art … and art is about business and making money,” is Bromley’s interpretation of Warhol’s famous line when describing how he and wife Yuge have moved in as artists-in-residence at property entrepreneur Larry Kestelman’s $800 million Capitol Grand project in Melbourne’s South Yarra.

Kestelman’s dream is to create Australia’s most luxurious property development yet, one he dubs “The Tower of Power”, full of all the trappings of what he says is six-star luxury. Think plush dining areas, billiards tables, libraries, steam rooms and a giant pool for the residents, not to mention top-rated restaurants, bars and fashion outlets on its lower levels.

For the past few weeks it has also included the growing Bromley family and an eclectic mixture of floor-to-ceiling prints, sculptures and furniture will be soon be scattered throughout the project, which spans 50 levels of prime inner-city Melbourne real estate.

It is on the start of a collaboration to eventually include a 350sq m working gallery, where Bromley will paint, build and design his work — he is best known for a distinct style of painting including female nude portraits and his children and butterflies and birds series — as well as collaborations with other artists, to be opened by next February.

It will, Kestelman tells The Weekend Australian, lift the bar on luxury property projects in Australia and put the finishing touches to an $800m project he and fiancee Anita Pahor will also live in, taking the last penthouse atop the 50th floor by early next year.

“The vision here has been to create something absolutely unique for successful people who want to live a particular lifestyle. This place is not necessarily for everyone, and I don’t think we intended it to be. It is really set up as a vision for how a certain community can live. And part of that vision is, without a doubt, luxury.

“I have created quite a unique environment for people to live in, but that environment is not complete without other things that we love [like] fashion, food and art. What I saw in David is something that can bring more life to this development and something people can talk about and be proud of.”

The duo met via Pahor and Yuge Bromley — “Larry said early on that he loves how we are rebels,” she says — at Pahor’s Society of Women Leaders female philanthropy group.

Pahor for her part says she wants the Bromley art to ensure that “excellence and luxury do not have to be stiff and pompous” in Capitol Grand.

Bromley and his wife and children have moved into a lower floor in the project (Bromley hates heights and admits with a laugh it will be an issue putting his works in Kestelman and Pahor’s 50th floor penthouse) in an apartment adorned with his work.

Colourful paintings line the walls, and wallpaper outside the apartment’s front door have his art works screen-printed on them adding colour to a corridor that otherwise has the look of a high-class hotel.

Bespoke furniture pieces feature inside and a garden on a large balcony overlooking the street includes two large Bromley childlike sculptures. It is these type of features that Bromley wants to see throughout the complex, including furniture from Boon Bromley, a series of bespoke pieces designed by Danish designer Hans Boon and Bromley, while art will hang or be installed around Capitol Grand’s restaurants, private and public areas and throughout its corridors.

Bromley’s studio will also operate as a working gallery, and be used a creative space for fashion, film, music, design and food joint ventures and events.

“The fantastic thing about us moving in here is … you become at one with this particular space,” Bromley says. “You can have colour here, something more subtle there and perhaps more playful over there. Very early on we realised we wanted a tremendous authenticity and a way of this constantly evolving.

“I do love the power of art. It brings so much to a community. Art can be this incredible beautiful level of luxury, a tremendously valuable asset. But it can also bring a musicality and a play and sense of theatre to the everyday. That is what we want to do here.”

Bromley says he has already been in discussions with South African art gallery director Mark Read about bringing international art works to his gallery, and the pop-up Omnia Bistro already operating on Capitol Grand’s ground level features works by established artists from Japan alongside emerging talent from Australia, curated by Bromley.

It is an approach that Kestelman says is about having art that “people want to talk about” and show off to guests and that is also “Instagram-able”.

Commercially, Kestelman has settled on all 90 apartments in the smaller 10-storey tower at Capitol Grand, with the first 15 floors of the more luxurious adjacent 50-storey tower are also sold. Next comes the challenge of selling the final 15-18 apartments in the “Azure Club” section above level 32, which range in price from $4m to $20m.

He says he has noticed sentiment pick up across the market since the Coalition’s election win.

A member of The List — Australia’s Richest 250 with an estimated $605m fortune, Kestelman also pulls no punches when discussing his high hopes for the hospitality part of the project, which he will own himself.

Omnia will move into a permanent space towards the end of the year — “Our goal is modest: to be the best bistro in the world,” says Kestelman — and he plans an Australian-style degustation restaurant with French cooking that he wants “to take on Vue de Monde and the Atticas of the world for the title of best restaurant in Australia.”.

There will also be a large bar in the building’s basement with “a modern Asian twist”, as well as a David Jones food hall, hair and beauty and fashion outlets and a private members club fashioned on the exclusive Battery Club in San Francisco that counts tech billionaires and venture capitalists among its members.

Mostly though, Kestelman says he wants to combine the luxury elements with some vibrancy, with Bromley’s art heading that push.

“I want to see people enjoying what we have created. I want to feel life, I want to see people enjoying it. I want to hear noise and I can’t wait for the building to be full. You walk into a European plaza and you see people enjoying life, that’s what I want here.

“But with a sense of success and excellence, and striving to achieve greatness. We are on a mission for excellence.”