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Nick Fairfax leads Sydney’s well-heeled to dig deep on multimillion-dollar house plans
By Lucy Macken
As the sound of jackhammers rang out across Little Manly Cove these school holidays, locals and stickybeaks couldn’t miss the rather large hole taking shape on the harbourfront off Addison Road.
The hole was previously a single-level house on a battleaxe block that last sold in 2017 for $5.7 million to Penny Joyce, whose husband Patrick Joyce heads up the Fairfax family’s private investment company Marinya Holdings.
An artist’s impression of the house being built on the Manly waterfront by Nick Fairfax and Penny Joyce.Credit: Northern Beaches Council
But upon closer inspection it turns out the majority owner of the title is now Nick Fairfax, of the Fairfax newspaper dynasty that once owned this masthead.
The Tamarama-based son of former media proprietor John B. Fairfax was added to the title as a 51.3 per cent owner at a transfer cost of $3 million, with a caveat giving him control over Joyce’s remaining ownership.
Despite Fairfax’s majority ownership it was left to Joyce to spearhead multiple development applications required to secure demolition of the old house to make way for a new residence.
Nick Fairfax is the Tamarama-based son of the former media proprietor John B. Fairfax.Credit: Andrew Quilty
Although, notably on a recent DA amendment Joyce is the applicant, and Fairfax is named as the owner, a point not lost on some of the half dozen objections from neighbours venting concerns over the scale, dust and depth of excavation work.
This is, after all, the same branch of the Fairfax family that for 126 years owned one of Sydney’s grandest estates, Elaine, in Point Piper, which sold to tech billionaire Scott Farquhar in 2017 for $71 million.
Ultimately, the Land and Environment Court consented to the Joyce-Fairfax plans in 2022 given a few amendments, paving the way for what is slated to be a three-level residence designed by Patterson Associates with five bedrooms, separate living areas, a boat shed and a rebuilt harbour swimming pool.
There was no response to inquiries to the Fairfax/Joyce office this week, so it remains unknown who among the happy owners will be taking up residence once the house is complete, if any of them.
Grand-er Designs
The Vaucluse house purchased for $34.5 million by Daniel and Georgia Contos for $34.5 million is one of three set to be demolished.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Across the harbour some notable identities in the eastern suburbs are expected to commandeer more of the state’s limited home building resources in coming months, judging by a slew of applications lodged with Woollahra Council this week.
Georgia and Daniel Contos at the 10th birthday of White Fox Boutique.Credit: Instagram
Daniel and Georgia Contos, the millennial rag traders behind White Fox Boutique, lodged plans on Tuesday to demolish three houses they purchased in Vaucluse for a total of $97 million to make way for a Bruce Stafford-designed residence on the more than 3000-square-metre site.
On Wednesday, Genevieve Reed, wife of hotelier Damien Reed, lodged plans for a minor excavation of the boat shed of their Watsons Bay home as well as minor changes to the swimming pool and internal layout.
Boongarre was last sold by former soccer player Mark Schwarzer in 2013 for $8 million.Credit: Domain
The Tobias Partners plans come a year after the Land and Environment Court approved a partial demolition and extension of the Reed’s heritage-listed house Boongaree. This is the 1880s-built house that a century ago was home to acclaimed Australian novelist Christina Stead and previously owned by former soccer player Mark Schwarzer until sold to the Reeds in 2013 for $8 million.
Sydney FC owner Scott Barlow and his wife Alina have lodged MHN Design Union-designed plans for their contemporary Vaucluse residence. They paid $39 million for it last October so what’s another $2 million to get it looking just right.
Scott Barlow and his wife Alina paid $39 million for a house in Vaucluse.Credit: Monique Westermann
And fund manager Ari Droga and his wife Lisa have $5.5 million worth of costs set aside for “alterations and additions” by Luigi Rosselli Architects to the historic Bonnington mansion in Bellevue Hill.
The F. Glynn Gilling-designed house was built in 1935 in the Tudor Revival architectural style, and sold by the late art collector John Schaeffer in 2018 for $20.32 million. Droga’s plans follow the recent sale of Global Infrastructure Partners to US investment giant BlackRock for $US12.5 billion ($19.1 billion), no doubt with a financial windfall to Droga and the fund’s other top brass.
Bonnington was built in 1935 and designed by acclaimed architect of that time F. Glynn Gilling.
Droga’s brother, adman David Droga has not yet lodged plans for his $45 million site on the Tamarama headland, but he has demolished the house, Lang Syne, and it looks like there’s a schmooze campaign underway to win over potential objectors judging by Rosselli’s recent comments to the Australian Financial Review that they plan to recycle some of the bricks from the old house.
Neighbourhood Watch
Henry Parry-Okeden, the son of billionaire and one-time richest woman in Australia Blair Parry-Okeden, and interior designer Sarah Parry-Okeden have bought the house next door to their Avalon Beach home, potentially creating a one-hectare estate if consolidated.
The Avalon Beach house on 3100 square metres sold for $4.52 million to the Parry-Okedens next door.Credit: Domain
The couple first bought on Avalon’s dress-circle Ruskin Rowe in 2013 for $2.8 million. Three years later Henry joined the board of global media conglomerate Cox Enterprises that was founded by his great-grandfather James M. Cox.
Records show the couple added a 3100-square-metre property in front of their battleaxe block for $4.52 million earlier this month, which is expected to be a renovation project by Sarah’s Wild Orchid Spaces.