Oceanfront apartment block conversion to single family abodes the latest Sydney fashion
It started with the Darling family at North Bondi, now fashion retailer Robby Ingham is set to follow the highly limited trend of converting a dated oceanfront apartment block into a family home.
His four floor Tamarama apartment block (pictured below) cost $14.45 million in the recent off market acquisition.
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The Ingham family have lived in the eastern suburbs coastal suburb since 1994 but outgrown their longstanding dual-semi block abode. This will be their family compound.
Title Tattle kept getting agent reports that they looked for a while at prestige eastern suburbs harbourfront offerings, but the call of ocean was seemingly the ultimate familial deciding factor.
The block of six, once known as Kenneth Manor, on its 564 square metre block was sold by Vaughan Blank's STM 123 Pty Ltd. It came with council approval for three luxury apartments by Brian Meyerson's MHNDU for the site that slopes southwards from Kenneth Street to Gaerloch Reserve overlooking MacKenzies Bay.
There were initial plans prepared by Tobias Partners back in 2006 for prior owners, Capital Globe Australasia Pty Ltd, but never proceeded with after CG being placed into receivership. Some time later Shaquil Haque, the chairman of Capital Globe who lived in Sydney, and the company's chief financial officer, Charles Young, were murdered after being shot at point-blank range in Pakistan in May 2010.
There are just 12 buildings within the row of buildings on the southern side of Kenneth Street, and most recently a four-level 1920s single dwelling was set for a new Durbach Block Jaggers-designed residence.
It's not the first time the idea of apartment conversion to single residence has been proposed as it was mid-2011 when Michael Darling, the chairman of Caledonia Investments and scion of the establishment pastoral and mining family, and his wife, Manuela Darling-Gansser, spent $14 million to buy a prized oceanfront North Bondi residential building site.
The somewhat neglected five-storey apartment North Bondi block is being converted into a luxury condominium compound for the Bellevue Hill family.
Set on the rock shelf known as Mermaid Rocks on the ocean shore at North Bondi, the building comprised 10 apartments that had been consolidated at a cost of $14 million between 2006 and 2008 by the retired IT entrepreneur Neill Miller.
The Art Deco 1930s Ramsgate Avenue block was marketed as the only privately owned apartment building with direct ocean access on the Ben Buckler peninsula.
The urbane Oxford- and Harvard-educated businessman is regarded as one of Australia’s savviest investors, having sold the family’s 41% equity in the finance house Clayton Robard for about $200 million shortly before the 1987 stock market crash.
Darling, a descendent of the pioneer John Darling and the son of long-time BHP director L Gordon Darling, was a McKinsey & Company consultant in the mid-1970s. I seem to recall he once climbed Mount Everest as far as Camp 3.
Architect Nick Tobias, of Tobias Partners, and Darling’s son-in-law, is undertaking the North Bondi redevelopment.
In February Title Tattle spotted something quite special happening at Bronte too.
The funds manager Seumas Dawes and his wife, Rosemary Seaton, having initially spent $12.3 million for a large, modern three-storey residence on 801 square metres in 2006 along the exclusive strip known as The Cutting, added the $16.5 million neighbouring house.
They earmarked it for bulldozing under Weir Phillips Architects garden and garaging plans for the extra 778 square metre holding - with a mega mansion likely to be the result of the rare chance of consolidation.
There was a potential postage stamp-sized building block on Sydney Harbour in the early 1980s which required thinking outside the box.
Once a right-of-way slipway for nearby flat owners, the Darling Point house (pictured below) dates to the early 1980s when built by the veteran property developer Bill Shipton. Set on a small sandy beach between historic Carthona and Neidpath, the Carthona Avenue has now been listed by the Melbourne-based landscaper Jack Merlo. The waterfront property which comes with $7.5 million plus hopes is just 207 square metres. It has been availabe during Merlo's ownership at $3500 a week rental.
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It is best known as the former home of Lady (Susan) Renouf, who sold it in 1997 for $2.9 million to Melbourne socialite Dianne Allen through the Double Bay agents Marcia Resch and Jane Ashton. Merlo paid $6.15 million in 2009. Before the Melbourne trio took hold of the bijou sur mer, the four-level property with a pool, had some colouful Sydney characters as past owners.
In the late 1980s it lay dormant when owned by absentee investor, and nearby The Swifts' resident, Carl Spies - other than its use by skylarking rich squatters for weekend raves. The waterfront - just over six metres wide - was then lavishly restored by stylist Barry Byrne under the patronage of landlady Dorothy Spry, who paid $2.4 million in 1989.
Lady Renouf's mark was making the sandy beach house function as a home. Her French-inspired home was her fifth NSW residence, the most famous being Point Piper's now long demolished, Toison d'or aka Paradis Sur Mer or Radford by oldtimers. Title Tattle heard this week a story about the Point Piper mansion's front door keys, but that can wait another time.
