F45 gym boss Adam Gilchrist buys Byron Bay trophy home for $18.8m

The boss of fast-growing gym franchise F45 Adam Gilchrist has splashed out on a Byron Bay trophy home for $18.85 million, just weeks after Hollywood heavyweight Mark Wahlberg bought into the company.

The off-market purchase has smashed the luxury holiday spot’s long-standing record high set in 2006 by the same property when it last traded for a bullish $15.68 million.

The Wategos Beach property was sold by Danny Goldberg, the Vaucluse-based contemporary art collector and executive chairman of private equity firm Dakota Capital.

Known as Wategos House, the colonial-style property was exchanged on a quick three-day settlement with no mortgage on title.

When approached about the purchase, Gilchrist said it was set to be a holiday home for his family. They want to spend more time in Australia and Los Angeles as the gym chain expands further into the US, no doubt aided by the pulling power of Wahlberg’s minority stake.

The low-key co-chief executive and co-founder of F45, not to be confused with the Test cricketer, is no stranger to Wategos Beach.

His grandfather, Eric Gilchrist, once owned one of the first Marine Parade subdivisions about 50 years ago, and Gilchrist and his wife were married across the road at the exclusive boutique retreat Rae’s on Wategos.

The six-bedroom residence on two titles totalling about 1500 square metres has long been considered one of the best houses on Wategos Beach.

Salmat co-founder Peter Mattick and his wife Pam hoped to top the Byron Bay record early last year when they listed their trophy home at the other end of Marine Parade, Whalewatchers, for $18.5 million.

However, the architect Timothy Moon-designed residence is now being offered for $14 million to $15 million through LJ Hooker’s Liam Annesley.

F45 has proved one of Australia’s biggest franchise success stories since it was founded by Gilchrist and Rob Deutsch in 2012. It currently has more than 1500 high-intensity training studios across 40 countries, and is averaging 50 new franchises a month.

The F45 franchise is headed up by Deutsche, who last December settled on Bronte’s highest house sale of last year for $11.2 million for a three-storey contemporary house opposite the beach sold by Alexander Phillips, of Phillips Pantzer Donnelley.