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He paid $45m for a brick house and demolished it. Then council weighed in
By Lucy Macken
Advertising guru David Droga’s high-falutin’ plans to build a trophy home on the Tamarama headland have met a fairly substantial stumbling block in the form of Waverley Council.
The setback comes after the New York-based Aussie chief executive of Accenture Song and his wife, Marisa, have already invested a decent chunk on the landmark site: their purchase set an Australian east coast record of $45 million a year ago, only to demolish it earlier this year, and have since forked out no small sum commissioning new digs by celebrated architect Luigi Rosselli.
The Luigi Rosselli-designed plans for the 1100-square-metre site on the Tamarama headland are now before the Land and Environment Court.
But that’s not swayed Waverley Council, which after initially requesting more information that wasn’t lodged, have since deemed it a refusal, prompting the Drogas to take their case to the Land and Environment Court.
David Droga is the New York-based head of advertising giant Accenture Song.Credit: Louie Douvis
The matter was aired before Deputy Registrar Elizabeth Orr last week and a decision is yet to be handed down. Droga and Rosselli declined to comment, and the council would only confirm that it is now a party to the proceedings.
On the drawing board is a three-level residence that features cocoon-shaped roof structures made from the recycled bricks – which once made up the Californian bungalow that for a century stood on the site called Lang Syne.
The organic-shaped design – think Hobbiton meets Tamarama – has a central “solarium court” that includes basement garaging, bike and sports gear storage, art storage, gymnasium and an internal lift.
The ground floor has four bedrooms, all with ensuites, a kitchen, butler’s pantry, formal dining room, sunken living room and a library in one of the cocoons.
An artist’s impression of the organic-shaped house designed to replace what was once the Lang Syne bungalow.
Upstairs is largely dedicated to the main bedroom and its walk-in wardrobe, ensuite and sitting room. There is a guest suite at the rear.
Given the unique and highly public nature of the site – a vast 1100 square metres with oceanfront reserve on three sides – the plans were always going to attract supporters and detractors alike.
But in the absence of submissions publicly available on council records, the only registered opinion was left to architect Zoltan Kovacs, who in his heritage report not only recommended the plans, but also gave this rousing endorsement: “If this project is not an exemplary, outstanding response to a significant natural environment, then I do not know what is.”
Auburn’s star attraction
Former ABC star journalists Stan Grant and Tracey Holmes have privately sold their Auburn home in the western suburbs, pocketing $1.4 million.
Tracey Holmes and her husband Stan Grant left the national broadcaster last year.Credit: Nic Walker
This is the five-bedroom duplex the couple purchased for $1.31 million in 2017, the same year Grant was appointed as the ABC Indigenous Affairs editor, and Holmes was fronting The Ticket podcast.
The couple have since moved east, buying a Coogee pad in 2021 for $2.85 million, having resigned from the public broadcaster last year.
Bellevue Hill stocktake
The Bellevue Hill apartment in the Spanish Mission Miramar block sold for about $8 million to Les and Sam Owen.Credit: Domain
Celebrity stockbroker Les Owen and his wife, Sam, have found new downsizer digs to replace their recently sold $14.5 million Bellevue Hill home.
The couple is moving a few blocks downhill, having bought one of the four apartments in the Spanish Mission block Miramar.
Bell Potter stockbroker Les Owen previously fronted the corporate interests of British steel billionaire Sanjeev Gupta.Credit: Anton Cermak
Anna Mayo, of the Mayo hardware family, had listed it with Highland Property’s William Manning, and settlement will reveal how close the Owens paid to the $8 million guide.
Mayo paid $3.6 million in 2016, but has since taken to Point Piper where in 2021 she bought two apartments fronting Lady Martins Beach for a total of almost $11 million.
Owen, the Bell Potter stockbroker who previously fronted the property trust of British “man of steel” Sanjeev Gupta, made headlines early in the Covid pandemic when he caught the virus from visiting Hollywood superstar Tom Hanks.
Child’s play
Fridge businessman and car importer William Crowle was forced out of his Potts Point home in the late 1930s to make way for the navy’s wartime construction expansion at Garden Island. He then had the block where he lived, Wyldefel Gardens, disassembled and rebuilt across the harbour at Kurraba Point.
Once Upon A Time is a triplex on the Kurraba Point harbourfront that was originally called Wyldefel Gardens when built in Potts Point.Credit: Domain
The triplex that took shape was renamed Once Upon A Time, a phrase for which the philanthropic Crowle was well-known, and which was shared with the men’s half-way house he had built at Ryde.
Penny Spence is the two-time winner of a Logie award and Nine’s former head of children’s television.Credit:
More than 40 years ago, Channel Nine’s long-time head of children’s programming and two-time Logie award winner Penny Spence bought the apartment for $245,000 following her split from former husband, the late legendary music maestro Geoff Harvey.
The four-bedroom spread with its own harbourfront terrace returns to the market with Ray White’s Stacey Leonie.