The Star chief Matt Bekier lists Vaucluse home for $7.5m-$8.2m amid pandemic

As The Star casino in Pyrmont was being scrubbed clean this week after it was revealed a patron had tested positive for COVID-19, the group’s chief executive Matt Bekier was also busy on the home front – given the start of a sales campaign to sell his Vaucluse mansion this weekend for $7.5 million to $8.2 million.

The three-level residence complete with pool, home cinema, rumpus room, library and formal and informal living areas was purchased by Bekier’s wife Melinda in 2012 for $4.05 million from former rugby league player-turned-hotelier Steve Bowden.

It returns to the market with Raine & Horne Potts Point/Elizabeth Bay’s Samuel Shuman and Luke Hogan.

Despite Star Entertainment being fined $5000 for breaching public health orders on Monday, the group’s fortunes have endured the economic fallout of the pandemic better than expected given that the majority of its punters are from domestic trade and both the Sydney flagship casino and the Brisbane and Gold Coast casinos remain open, albeit running at 50 per cent capacity.

High-end values in Sydney’s well-heeled neighbourhoods have also weathered the current economic downturn surprisingly well given a drastic drop in prestige homes for sale and strong demand from returning expats, as businessman Fred Bart and his lawyer and corporate director wife Cheryl well know.

The couple’s Bellevue Hill mansion is widely tipped to have found a buyer at more than its $21 million guide.

The rumours come despite the selling agent LJ Hooker Double Bay’s Bill Malouf saying it has not sold, and the listing remains on property portals.

It was listed in April just four months after the Barts exchanged on the Point Piper home of former Warner Music chairman Stephen Shrimpton for about $33 million .

The Barts are only the third family to own the grand Bellevue Hill residence. It was built in 1920 for Sir Hugh Denison, tobacco manufacturer and founder of The Sun newspaper, who sold it in 1924 to the Burleigh family.

It was bought by the Barts in 1985 for $1.5 million from The Strand Investment Company, an investment vehicle of pastoralist Claude Renshaw, husband of Barbara Burleigh, and was reportedly a favourite retreat of his brother, 1960s Labor premier Jack Renshaw.