Residents of the Blue Mountains are known for many things, but an enthusiasm for property development is rarely one of them.
Millionaire Sydney property investor Jerry Schwartz should probably know this better than most. For the past 15 years, the suspended surgeon-turned-private hotelier has owned the Fairmont Resort in the well-heeled town of Leura. Two years ago, Schwartz scooped up a second resort in the area, Leura Gardens Resort, for a reported $25 million.
Now, Schwartz appears intent to inject a flavour of the Gold Coast into the sleepy Blue Mountains village with plans for a new, er, rollercoaster after a stand-off with the local council over a clutch of other applications.
Schwartz lodged a development application for the “installation of a rollercoaster, double-decker carousel and an indoor climbing area” at his Fairmont Resort on March 25, with an estimated cost of $148,500.
According to site plans lodged with the council, the rollercoaster would sit by the carpark at the north-east corner of the property, with the double-decker carousel to the south by the tennis court. The indoor climbing gym, meanwhile, would go in the main house.
When reached by CBD over the weekend, Schwartz said the proposal would have tourism benefits for the community and said that his investment in the resort has made it a “powerful economic contributor” to the Blue Mountains community. He said the rollercoaster would be “small”.
“When I bought the Fairmont back in 2011, the local community was desperate for the hotel to be revived, as it was an essential component of the region’s tourism infrastructure and had been totally disregarded,” Schwartz told CBD.
“The Fawlty Towers reputation meant the community lost jobs and income and its decline damaged the Blue Mountain’s tourism reputation.”
Schwartz is the nation’s largest private hotel investor. He controls Sofitel Darling Harbour and the Hilton Surfer’s Paradise, along with the Mercure Hotels in Sydney and Canberra, and the Ibis hotels in Sydney’s World Square and King Street Wharf.
In Leura, the exhibition period for Schwartz’s rollercoaster proposal is set to end on May 6, but it’s only the latest in a series of bold development applications lodged by the hotelier in recent months.
Among the millionaire’s most recent proposals are plans to build a helipad at his Fairmont resort for the benefit of his guests. That was knocked back by a council panel this month, reportedly over noise concerns. Schwartz was disappointed. “It wasn’t [going to be] in anybody’s backyard, and was planned for the rear of the hotel to minimise any impact,” he told CBD.
Then there was a proposal for a new illuminated sign welcoming commuters to the upper mountains village at an estimated cost of $77,000. But it looks like the sign was given the kiss of death by residents and a community group, the Leura Community Alliance, which (reasonably, we should note) compared the sign’s proposed design to the famous one that “leads to the Las Vegas casino strip”.
Schwartz, persistent if nothing else, said he plans to appeal in the Land and Environment Court.
Jackie O surfaces for Anzac Day rugby league
Media observers and the frenzy of gawkers who have been glued to each and every development in the Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson fallout may have been a little let down when only Sandilands appeared at the Federal Court last week.
But Henderson hasn’t gone to ground altogether. The radio host, who has mounted legal action against her former employer ARN Media for more than $82 million in compensation, was among a throng of guests who turned out to watch the Sydney Roosters take on the St George Illawarra Dragons in Sydney on Anzac Day.
Henderson watched the game from the Trust Suite at Allianz Stadium, CBD hears, hosted by former NRL chief executive David Gallop, who we hear lives near Henderson and got her out to the game. Henderson was joined by fashion designer Pip Edwards, among a handful of others.
Dragons tragic and former prime minister John Howard was also there with his wife, Janette, along with former NRL chief executive John Quayle, and former Kangaroo and current Venues NSW board member, Ian Roberts, CBD hears. Also there was businessman and Roosters board member Mark Bouris and Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Mark Arbib.
Of course, even though Henderson gave the Federal Court a miss on Friday, Saturday wasn’t her first public outing since mounting legal action against her former bosses. She showed her face this month at the Her Best Life retreat, a $2600-a-head event organised by her agent, Gemma O’Neill, with Meghan Markle as the headline talent.
One name we didn’t hear in the post-game wash-up was that of Henderson’s former co-host. Our guess is he watched the game from home.
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John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.