Justin Hemmes lists Potts Point landmark for $11m after 30 years family ownership

Sydney’s multimillionaire bar tsar Justin Hemmes usually makes property headlines for his big-ticket purchases so it is somewhat of a novelty to report him selling one of his family’s longest-held investments set in the heart of Potts Point.

Hemmes’ father, the late John Hemmes and wife Merivale were renowned for their iconic fashion house Merivale when in 1988 they bought the property at the corner of Macleay Street and Challis Avenue for $1.428 million.

The couple promptly undertook what was then a lavish $1 million restaurant refurbishment of what was previously the Giraffe restaurant.

The Merivale brasserie opened in 1994, and the fashion retailer, known as Mr John  admitted at the time that  their key business interests were now in real estate and food.

Son Justin must have overheard, expanding the family’s hospitality empire since then into one of Sydney’s largest, staking his place on last year’s Financial Review Rich List with a $951 million fortune thanks to his Merivale Group’s ownership of 70 pubs, hotels, restaurants and venues.

The landmark mixed-use property is classic Potts Point. Behind the ornate 1930s facade, it boasts Merivale’s Fish Shop at street level, a clothing retail outlet next door, and four art deco apartments above it.

It is set to go to auction with an $11 million guide through Jason Boon, of Richardson & Wrench Elizabeth Bay, and Alan Levy, of Metro Commercial.

Hemmes’ Dover Heights soft spot

Justin Hemmes hasn’t given up property shopping altogether. Recently updated records show he recently took possession of a clifftop home in Dover Heights for $7.5 million.

The clifftop residence was bought from Nicki Smoli, wife of Neil Smoli, the founder and chief of property and research firm Aviate Group.

Smoli has owned the property since 2012, paying $2.4 million and then commissioning her dad, architect Dennis Rabinowitz to redesign the property before it was listed late last year with Barry and Mark Goldman, of Sotheby’s International.

Hemmes’ purchase looks like it could be set to be home to his former partner Kate Fowler, for whom he was last seen on the house hunting trail as the under-bidder at last September’s auction of the Bellevue Hill home of Rupert Murdoch’s Australian lieutenant Michael Miller.

Miller ultimately scored $6.575 million under the hammer, freeing him to buy up the hill for $18.6 million for the Luigi Rosselli-designed home of Seafolly chief Anthony Halas and his wife Andie.

Meanwhile, the Smoli clan have found decent replacement digs, paying $7 million off-market for a Vaucluse residence designed by architect Michael Robilliard.