Hotelier Andrew Thomas puts Neutral Bay landmark Cossington up for sale for $8m

It should be no big surprise to see the historic Neutral Bay home of Andrew Thomas, owner of the local landmark pub The Oaks, lead the high-end listings to market this week for more than $8 million given his recent purchase of Cassandra Thorburn’s home on the Cremorne waterfront.

Cossington is the Queen Anne-style residence that was built in 1891 by architect Howard Joseland for lawyer Ernest Smith and where the following year Australia’s first female modernist painter Grace Cossington Smith was born.

The landmark home was later owned by David Jones chairman Charles Lloyd Jones and Raine & Horne founder Tom Raine before it was bought in 1960 by the late radio pioneer Maurice Chapman, who held it until 1995.

Thomas, a third generation hotelier, bought the 1400-square-metre property in 2000 for $2.55 million from Sydney Rum Distillery chairman David Ward and his wife Dr Michele Ward, and later commissioned a renovation and extension by architect Jorge Hrdina that was a finalist in the NSW Architecture Awards in 2014.

Thomas and his partner, owner of Papaya PR agency Catherine Slogrove, have listed it with Piers van Hamburg, of Di Jones, who sold them into Thorburn’s former home for more than $9 million.

Property jewels hit the market

Following the death last year of Lysle Roberts, of Australia’s oldest jewellery house Fairfax and Roberts, the family are selling their long-held Palm Beach weekender and his landmark Pymble home Sunnydale Cottage.

The family’s ties to the Palm Beach beachfront property go back to 1940 when prominent wool merchant Arthur Clifton Wilkinson bought a cottage on Iluka Road, and following his death in the 1970s it was passed to his son-in-law and World War II Spitfire pilot Lysle Roberts.

Lysle was chief of the family’s jewellery group when the Palm Beach getaway was rebuilt in log cabin-style in 1979 where it now shares the same stretch of prized Snapperman Beach as the likes of Sydney University chancellor Belinda Hutchinson and her mining executive husband Roger Massy-Greene, restaurateur John Szangolies and Uncle Toby’s founder Doug Shears.

Sons Warwick and Reg Roberts have listed it with James Baker, of McGrath Avalon, for $8 million.

Meanwhile, the family’s Pymble home is the colonial Georgian Revival-style residence that was built in 1928 by architect Douglas Agnew and bought by Lysle in 1951.

Retained by the Roberts family since, the 1200-square-metre property goes to auction on September 28 with a $2.5 million guide through McGrath’s Alex Mintorn.

Whittens land in a new home

Anywhere Travel boss Barbara Whitten and her husband, lawyer Ray Whitten, have bought the Point Piper home of Citi’s Pan-Asia head of cash sales Angus Richardson and his wife Martha.

Richardson bought the duplex in 2009 for $4.6 million from publican Brian Powell and his wife Carolyn soon after he started at Citi as co-head of equities, and listed it with Max Spartalis, of Krulis Residential, in June for $6.5 million following their move to Hong Kong. It sold pre-auction for a bullish $7.6 million.

The Whittens sold their Vaucluse empty nest late last year for about $30 million to hotelier Marcus Levy and his wife Vanessa Sanchez-Levy after three years on and off the market, and ending 27 years’ ownership since they bought it for $3.25 million.

Cashing in their chips in Darling Point

Luxury car dealer Robert Damelian and his wife Karen have listed their double Darling Point apartment for $13.5 million.

Records show the 446-square-metre spread was originally purchased as one apartment in the triplex for $2.75 million in 1999 from cattle exporter Patrick Purcell, and its neighbour added in 2002 for $2.98 million from Lynette Harvey, former wife of retail billionaire Gerry Harvey.

An amalgamation followed to create what is now a two-storey spread with an internal lift, formal and informal living areas, study and high-end finishes throughout. It is listed with Pauline Goodyer, of Goodyer Real Estate, and Katrina Wilson, of BradfieldCleary.

Designs on a $3.25m sale

Alexandra Kidd is somewhat of a big deal in interior design circles right now, so expect plenty of interest in the Potts Point apartment she and her lawyer husband Ian Day are offering to buyers for $3.25 million.

The couple were already residents in the tightly held Soho building when they bought the three-bedder for $1.7 million two years ago, with Kidd’s designer nous brought to bear on the interiors since then.

Jason Boon, of Richardson & Wrench Elizabeth Bay, has set a September 19 auction.

Turning the page in Lavender Bay

The Lavender Bay terrace of the late newspaperman Adrian Deamer hit the market this week for $4 million after more than half a century of family ownership.

Deamer, who was inducted into the Melbourne Press Club’s Hall of Fame in 2017, was widely regarded as the best editor of The Australian before he was sacked in 1971, and later become legal manager for The Sydney Morning Herald and Financial Review newspapers in the 1980s and 1990s.

Having bought the terrace on the high side of Waiwera Street with its coveted views of the Harbour Bridge in late 1966, his late wife Gwen continued to live there after he died in 2000, aged 77.

Following Gwen’s death last year, it will go to auction on September 25 through Stone McMahons Point’s Annika and Aaron Bongiorno.

Seeing double in North Sydney

In North Sydney, the Victorian Italianate terrace Cliffbank is up for grabs for $6.5 million by brand consultant and mentor Ondina Gregoric and her husband, former government affairs operative Kieran Schneemann.

Built in the 1880s near the former North Sydney Gasworks Factory as the manager’s residence, it was bought by Gregoric and Schneemann, who sits on the board of CanTeen, in 2012 for $3.2 million from former North Sydney mayor Carole Baker and her husband, former Sydney City councillor Denny Linker.

Mark Jackson, of Belle Property, is taking expressions of interest until September 14.

In somewhat of a lucky coincidence the terrace adjoining Cliffbank has also hit the market at the same time, owned in a company name by Lavender Bay local Mark Lazberger, former chief of Colonial First State Global Asset Management, and his wife Anne.

The Lazbergers bought it in 2009 for $3.6 million from Hilary Stening, widow of the late world champion sailor Guy Stening.

Ray White Lower North Shore’s David Gillan and Richard Harding  are asking between $4.9 million and $5.39 million.