THE demise of Gordon Fell’s Rubicon empire may lie squarely in the liquidator’s cross-hairs but the founder of the failed financial engineering group is not letting a billion-dollar collapse get in the way of his new career as a property developer.
Dr Fell sold Rubicon to Allco Finance Group just before Allco collapsed in 2008, leaving him and his fellow shareholders, David Coe and Matthew Cooper, with a $63 million bounty.
Fell spent almost all of his share of the Rubicon sale on buying a $28.75 million mansion in Point Piper (in his wife’s name), but there was enough left over – and indeed made before the collapse – to finance his development of two luxury residential developments in Sydney’s plush eastern suburbs.
The two apartment buildings are shaping up to be nice little earners.
The first is a complex of six apartments at the northern end of Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach, that mimics the modern style of James Packer’s pad at the southern end of the same street.
Packer’s bolthole sits above a Jurlique beauty products store, which he owns, while Fell’s apartments will sit above six shops that will likely include a Thai takeaway and a bottle shop.
Fell bought the rundown 1950s North Bondi building for $6.5 million in May 2007 through his company Hertford Properties.
Last November the 46-year-old, British-born entrepreneur applied to Waverley Council to demolish the shops and replace them with the part two-, part three-storey building which has views of the beach.
At the moment it is surrounded by hoarding, but it is expected to make a healthy return when he sells the two penthouses for up to $3 million each and the four other apartments for as much as $1 million each.
While Allco’s beleaguered creditors are still waiting for action from the liquidators, Fell, a former Rhodes scholar, is also developing The Hub, complex of 20 apartments and two levels of commercial space facing Bronte Road in Bondi Junction. The Hub is due to be completed in June next year.
He bought the site last November for $5.25 million, and has presold most of the apartments.
Following the collapse of Allco in November 2008, Fell resigned as the chairman of Opera Australia after eight years on its board and quit as a director of the charity The Smith Family. The formerly high-flying University of Sydney student also stepped aside as a trustee of his alma mater, Sydney Grammar School. His only public appearance of late has been to give evidence at the Allco receiver’s public examinations in March – which focused on other issues besides the Rubicon deal.
He could yet face action from both the receivers and the liquidators. Last month the liquidator of Allco secured cash from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to pursue an investigation into a series of ”potential offences” resulting from alleged breaches of the Corporations Act.
McGrathNicol is carrying out the inquiries on behalf of ASIC, and is preparing a confidential report for the regulator.
The receiver, Ferrier Hodgson, representing banks owed about $600 million, is looking at whether any action relating to the Rubicon transaction could recover funds.
Mr Fell declined to comment when contacted by BusinessDay.
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