Music promoter’s $25m riverside Toorak mansion hits the market
Music promoter Richie McNeill and his wife, stylist Lauren Millay, have put their multilevel riverside Toorak mansion on the market with an asking price of $23 million to $25 million.
One of just two dozen residences in Toorak with Yarra River frontage, the four-level St Georges Road home sits on a 1736-square-metre sloping block and includes its own jetty with boat mooring, a lift, undercover entertainment terrace, heated pool and landscaped north-facing lawn.
The six-bedroom home also includes a theatre room with an executive office, palatial dining room, a chef’s kitchen, sauna and self-contained one-bedroom apartment.
The multilevel home is one of just two dozen in Toorak with river frontage.
Mr McNeill, a former DJ who co-founded electronic dance festivals such as Stereosonic which attracted crowds of over 200,000, acquired what was then a dilapidated 1960s home for $5.35 million at the end of 2013.
He bought the property in the same year that Totem OneLove Group, the parent company of Stereosonic, was acquired by US-based SFX Entertainment for $75 million. Mr McNeill co-owned Totem OneLove with fellow promoters Frank Cotela, Dror Erez, Simon Coyle and Peter Raff.
Soon after buying it, Mr McNeill hired architecture firm Raidstudio, headed by his then friend Nicholas Ruljancich, to design an extravagant four-level home. Construction began in June 2015 and the house was completed in mid-2019.
In late 2019, the relationship between Mr McNeill and Mr Ruljancich turned litigious after Raidstudio requested permission to take photos of the completed home, but were unable to gain “reasonable access” to the property.
According to the published ruling, Mr McNeill claimed he had an agreement with Raidstudio, which assigned copyright of any photos of the house to him due to privacy concerns.
The home includes an entertainment terrace and heated pool.
Mr Ruljancich claimed there had been no discussion about assigning copyright to Mr McNeill.
Mr Ruljancich sought damages of $66,742.50 related to the cost of obtaining computer-generated, photo-realistic visual representations of the project for marketing purposes.
In a decision made in February last year, Magistrate T.W. Greenway found the loss suffered by Raidstudio to be $63,778.
The home on St Georges Road – one of Melbourne’s most expensive streets – is being marketed by Justin Long and Fiona Counsel from Marshall White.
Mr Long said the water frontage and private jetty were a standout feature. “There’s only 24 homes in total in Toorak with river front, so it’s in pretty rarefied air,” he told The Australian Financial Review.
The spectacular renovation of what was a derelict and unlivable home had created a “considerable wow factor”, Mr Long said, adding there was particularly strong demand for newly renovated and new homes requiring no additional construction work.
“Buyers are time poor and also don’t want the headache of renovating,” he said.
Recent sales on St Georges Road include the home of Michael and Hayley Smorgon, members of Melbourne’s billionaire Smorgon dynasty, It sold for about $30 million to Stephen Arvanitis, the son of controversial aged care mogul and Estia Health founder Peter Arvanitis and wife Areti.
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