Kerry Packer's Elizabeth Bay penthouse retreat hits the market for $25m

The Elizabeth Bay penthouse that was for decades renowned as the private retreat of the late media tycoon Kerry Packer is being sold by his long-time friend and employee Julie Trethowan.

The apartment was slipped onto the market on Thursday night by Pillinger’s Brad Pillinger with no internal images and no address on the marketing amid buyer interest at the $25 million level.

The two-storey penthouse atop the landmark 1967 waterfront building Toft Monks is a consolidation of two apartments purchased first in 1979 and then 20 years later when the late former state minister Jack Beale sold Mr Packer his penthouse for $4 million.

Just months before Mr Packer died, work started on a lavish renovation and consolidation of the level 12 and level 13 apartments estimated to cost almost $2 million. Modifications included an internal staircase that linked the two apartments to create a two-storey spread of 550 square metres with enclosed balconies and views on three sides of Garden Island, Darling Point and Manly.

However, Mr Packer never enjoyed the completed work before he died on Boxing Day, 2005, aged 68.

As well as the top floor apartments, Mr Packer also purchased two apartments on the lower levels that were reportedly for the use of staff.

It was a lavish escape for Australia’s one-time richest man from his home life at the family compound Cairnton in Bellevue Hill and where he reportedly employed a chef, chauffeur, nurse and housekeeper to cater to his needs.

Dr Beale later told the Sydney Morning Herald that Mr Packer “loved the place because he could get away from other things” and enjoy the privacy that Toft Monks offered, sometimes doing laps in the block’s harbour pool.

The apartments have always been held in the name of corporate entities, in effect owned by Ms Trethowan. For decades she ran the Hyde Park Club, a luxury health and fitness club in the basement of Packer’s Park Street office headquarters.

Ms Trethowan’s selling plans were already underway before she listed the penthouse this week. One of the smaller apartments downstairs, purchased in 1999 for $1.5 million, was sold recently by McGrath’s Damian Steele for $3.25 million.

Ms Trethowan retains her long-held Whale Beach house, purchased in a company name in 1990 for $1.35 million.