Gretel Packer hits the city with an $8.37 million splash
Gretel Packer has splashed out on a whole-floor strata office on Macquarie Street overlooking the Domain to the tune of $8,371,000.
Packer took possession of the space in March, purchasing it in a company name from the Hong Kong-based East Asia Property Group, who with Lend Lease developed the Renzo Piano-designed Aurora Place up the road.
Packer’s purchase of the whole 13th floor in the 1965-built Hudson House makes her just the latest buyer among some of Australia’s wealthiest families.
Gretel Packer pictured next to mother Roslyn in 2014. Photo: Paul Jeffers/Fairfax Media via Getty Images
The Fairfax family’s Cambooya company bought into the commercial building late last year, paying $7.6 million from the Rossi family.
Fund manager Will Vicars paid former Network Seven chairman Ian Holmes and his wife Anne $5.84 million a year ago for office space given the up-coming need to move Caledonia Investments on from Gold Fields House at Circular Quay.
Also in the building is the Australian Hotels Association and Royal Thai Consulate-General.
There was a DA on the building approved by Sydney City Council in 2013 in which a $32 million redevelopment of the building would have allowed levels 1 to 7 and 9 to 13 to be converted into residential apartments, with a four-bedroom apartment on each level.
However, owners in the building never officially lodged plans to pursue the DA, and there remains only 10 months on the DA before it expires.
Packer’s purchase follows the billion-dollar settlement of media tycoon Kerry Packer’s will late last year, in which Gretel Packer’s estate now includes stakes in Crown Resorts and US online real estate business Zillow, a share of the family Hunter Valley property Ellerston and the Palm Beach weekender.
