High hopes for sky home of Signature Hospitality’s Brad Harris

Signature Hospitality Group co-founder Brad Harris has listed his designer East Melbourne sky home.

Signature Hospitality Group co-founder Brad Harris has listed his designer East Melbourne sky home. He has $7.5 million hopes for the eighth-level entertainer in 150 Clarendon, the contemporary Bates Smart-designed luxury apartment block overlooking Fitzroy Gardens. The apartment has three bedrooms, each with a marble ensuite and two with walk-in wardrobes. Harris paid $6.075m off the plan in 2008, a year before the building was complete. RT Edgar Toorak agents Sarah Case and Rudy Van Der Berg have the listing. Harris’s Signature Hospitality Group, which owns sports bar chain Sporty Globe, has recently purchased and is relaunching TGI Fridays.

‘Squash Court’ in play

A South Yarra home credited as the first design by the late Melbourne architect Wayne Gillespie in the 1970s has hit the market. The home, dubbed The Squash Court, has been renovated since it last traded for $1.62m in 2011, when it was sold by Latina Pasta co-founder Fraser Hopkins, who had paid $108,560 in 1983.

The ‘Squash Court’ in South Yarra.

Trademark Gillespie features are still prevalent in the home. Floor-to-ceiling glass opens from the dining room to the rear garden, allowing for the maximisation of light. Kay & Burton is seeking $2.675m. The 1972 build was Gillespie’s first independent project and his own home.

New sales brief from lawyer

Prominent Gold Coast lawyer Chris Nyst and wife Julia are trying again to sell their Gold Coast home. Newly refreshed when initially listed last year, the 1960s Southport home on exclusive Regatta Parade cost the couple $1.05m in 2013. They spent four months adding a new kitchen and extending the upstairs living areas. The home now comes with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a home office and two living areas, one of which opens to the large entertainment terrace and swimming pool. Ray White Prestige Gold Coast agents Sherri Smith and Robert Graham have an auction scheduled for this weekend. Chris is writing a new novel and has plans to shoot another crime comedy film.

Boy soldier’s home up for grabs

The Hawthorn home that once belonged to Australia’s youngest Anzac soldier is for sale. Forres, an 1880s property once home to James Martin, the youngest Australian to die serving at war, has been listed for a November 15 auction. The history of the six-bedroom Mary Street home was described in the 2001 book Soldier Boy: The True Story of Jim Martin, the Youngest Anzac, by Anthony Hill. The 14-year-old soldier James (Jim) Martin lived at Forres when he enlisted in 1915 claiming to be 18. He was deployed to Egypt before going to Gallipoli, where he died of typhoid. The facade remains intact, with a rear extension by local architect John O’Laughlin. The home was built for Hector McDonald, a solicitor who worked for the Grace Park Syndicate. The Martin family leased it and ran it as a boarding house. It is set for November 15 auction through Jellis Craig agents Richard Winneke and Campbell Ward with $8m hopes.

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