Fallen pub tycoon Jon Adgemis and his mother’s Rose Bay home sold off by lenders to super site developer

The Adgemis matriarch’s home carried more than $53m of claimed debts, and was repossessed before it was offloaded to a Sydney developer in a parcel that traded for more than $80m.

2a Conway Street in Rose Bay in Sydney.

Broke pubs entrepreneur Jon Adgemis missed out on a property windfall in Sydney’s Rose Bay because the home he owned with his mother was seized by lenders before it could be sold as part of a super site.

Home values in Sydney’s top suburbs have been flying as owners band together to sell to developers capitalising on the NSW government’s new fast-track planning rules. Big deals have already been struck elsewhere in Rose Bay, where a dozen homeowners in the wealthy enclave sold to a retirement operator for $173m, and on Sydney’s North Shore, where the likes of the James Packer-backed Time & Place have assembled sites overlooking Balmoral Beach.

Property insiders estimate the entire block it was joined with sold for more than $80m. The homes at 2A-6 Conway Avenue, 15-15A Fernleigh Avenue and 38-40 Carlisle Street will be demolished to make way for a new 70-apartment luxury development. A price for the Adgemises No. 2A Conway Avenue was not disclosed.

The super site was put together by boutique developer Mathieson Property, which has luxury sites elsewhere in Sydney. The company declined to comment on the details of the purchase but has posted on social media that it will bring in top designers as it looks to capitalise on the Sydney Harbour views with an eight storey scheme. Brad Caldwell-Eyles, managing director of 1st City Real Estate Group, is advising on the plans but declined to comment.

But the sale is unlikely to deliver any relief to Mr Adgemis’ creditors.

The bankrupt Sydney businessman and his mother Rose bought the house for $4.45m in 2018, before loading up the property, among a series of other assets, to back Mr Adgemis’ empire building.

At his peak, Mr Adgemis controlled 22 pubs and hotels across Sydney and Melbourne funded by private credit lenders. He had tapped them for $53.7m in debt against the Rose Bay home alone, much of that linked to Sydney lender GEMI Investments, run by Justin Epstein and George Fleming.

However, La Trobe Financial took possession of the house in July, which was inhabited by Mr Adgemis’ sister and his nephew who had been living at the Conway Avenue. Rose Adgemis had attempted to block the move, arguing she didn’t know her son had put the home up as security.

The sale comes after months of public marketing for the property via Fred Small and Steven Zoellner of Laing and Simmons Double Bay.

Originally published as Fallen pub tycoon Jon Adgemis and his mother’s Rose Bay home sold off by lenders to super site developer