32-year-old Annabelle Shamir who owns $30m Bellevue Hill home buys Double Bay site for $26.5m

A 32-year-old who already owns a $30m trophy home has been revealed as the $26.5m buyer of a prominent Eastern Suburbs commercial site, now set to be redeveloped.

Plans currently before 12 Cross St, Double Bay, show a six-storey building consisting of retail, two floors of offices and three whole-floor apartments.

A 32-year-old who already owns a $30m trophy home has been revealed as the $26.5m buyer of a prominent Double Bay commercial site.

And Woollahra Council is now assessing plans for the double-storey building at 12 Cross St to be redeveloped into a new six-storey structure with a mix of retail, offices and three whole-floor luxury apartments, designed by Brian Meyerson of MHN Design Union.

Settlement details show a company owned by Annabelle Shamir is the mystery buyer of the existing six retail shops and six commercial offices on the 328 sqm site.

Previously owned by Sydney’s Ma family, the property exchanged last April via Peter Leipnik of Bradfield BadgerFox, with Tas Costi of the commercial buyers agency Costi Cohen known to have introduced the buyer.

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The corner site at 12 Cross St currently consists of a two-storey building, with six shops and six offices.

An artist’s impression of the new designer building, currently being considered by council.

Shamir is the wife of deal maker Adam Blumenthal, a Liberal Party fundraiser and chairman of his corporate advisory firm EverBlu Capital. Blumenthal also manages his property portfolio and private credit venture. He’s known to be amalgamating several large landholdings in Picton, which will then be subdivided.

And sources advise that the purchase of Double Bay is one of several sites the couple are purchasing to develop.

It was seven months ago that the couple lodged a DA to demolish the existing building at 12 Cross St and replace it with the impressive new building, with two basement parking levels.

A council spokeswoman yesterday confirmed the plans are now being assessed.

Perhaps anticipating the long delay in council, four months ago, Ray White Commercial agent Zorick Toltsan was charged with leasing out the spaces as six-month pop-ups.

The prominent surgeon, Dr Gordon Slater, has now snapped up Shop 6 as an office space.

Neighbours include Bills, Adilla Barbers and Duo jewellery. The InterContinental is across the road.

Annabelle Shamir pictured at Catalina several years ago. Picture: Dylan Robinson

The Ma family, headed by patriarch Hong Kong press baron Ching-Kwan Ma, had snapped up the “trophy asset” for $14.7m in 2018.

There’d been speculation at the time that the Ma family may follow other owners on the street, such as developers Toga and SJD into developing the site into a residential project.

Toga developed 16-18 Cross St into a 13 unit project called The Hunter and SJD redeveloped 20-26 Cross St and 28-34 Cross St into 1788 Residences.

Shamir’s redevelopment plans in Double Bay follow her purchase of a Bellevue Hill mansion for $30m two years ago.

That was the Victoria Rd ranch previously owned by the fashion designer-turned-lifestyle blogger Stephanie Conley-Buhre.

It was a significant upgrade for Shamir and Blumenthal, who had made no major improvements to the six-bedroom Murriverie Rd, North Bondi house with pool that they’d sold for $11,235,000 in September of 2021.

The result was 78 per cent more than the $6.3m she’d bought it for two years earlier.

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Originally published as 32-year-old Annabelle Shamir who owns $30m Bellevue Hill home buys Double Bay site for $26.5m