The Urban Developer
AdvertiseEventsWebinars
Urbanity
Awards
Sign In
Membership
Latest
Menu
Location
Sector
Category
Content
Type
Newsletters
AFFORDABLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2025
AFFORDABLE HOUSING SUMMIT THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2025
EVENT DETAILSDETAILS
TheUrbanDeveloper
Follow
About
About Us
Membership
Awards
Events
Webinars
Listings
Resources
Terms & Conditions
Commenting Policy
Privacy Policy
Republishing Guidelines
Editorial Charter
Complaints Handling Policy
Contact
General Enquiries
Advertise
Contribution Enquiry
Project Submission
Membership Enquiry
Newsletter
Stay up to date and with the latest news, projects, deals and features.
Subscribe
ADVERTISEMENT
SHARE
3
print
Print
PlanningRalph NicholsonThu 13 Jul 23

Comedian’s Ex-Home Cleared for Six-Level Mansion

Tivoli Avenue Hero

A Sydney developer expects to start construction on a six-level luxury mansion on the city’s harbourfront later this year that, when finished, will rank among the country’s most expensive houses.

With estimated build costs of $18.6 million, the new four-bedroom home will go on a 1290sq m lot at Rose Bay that last changed hands for $45 million less than two years ago.

The former chief executive of Coverforce insurance brokerage, Jim Angelis, bought the property at 12 Tivoli Avenue—complete with Spanish Mission-style mansion—in September 2021.

As part of the approved development application, the Villa Florida—a 22-room residence designed and built in 1928 by prominent US-based architect E.W. Sankey—has been demolished.

Empire Project Management director Nathan Gallon said demolition on the existing building had started in December last year and was completed by March.

“We removed the building and we’re in design development for a construction certificate at the moment,” he said.

“All I can say is construction will start later in the year. These things take time at the moment given all the stuff that’s happening in the industry.”

The project will be a complex one, according to development monitor BCI Central. 

Documents lodged with Woollahra Municipal Council in August last year show the harbour-front property falls more than 27m from the street to the water.

Of the six levels to the new mansion, three of them will begin underground. Just a single storey will be visible at street level.

“The proposal is very unusual in its siting on what is effectively a cliff,” Town planners City Planning Works said in their filing.

A photograph of the 22-room Villa Florida—once owned by comedian Barry Humphries.  It was demolished earlier this year.
▲ The 22-room Villa Florida—once owned by comedian Barry Humphries—was demolished this year. Source: CoreLogic.

“Combined with the irregular geometry of the site, the site topography does not easily fit the standard local environmental plan and development control plan models.

“Further complication is added by the siting of the additional floor space underground but open to the waterfront, as has been done in a few comparable locations such as Dumaresq Road, Rose Bay, Bay View Hill Road and New South Head Road.”

Plans call for a total 3200cu m to be excavated before construction.

“The extent of excavation is greater than normally permitted but the site is very unusual, and the excavation is justified to enhance the amenity of adjoining properties and minimise bulk and scale of the dwelling,” City Planning Works wrote.

Gallon said the engineering detail was being worked out.

“It’s a very steep site on the Sydney Harbour foreshore and there’s a lot of engineering detail that needs to be resolved in order to make sure that the structure, and the whole in the ground per se, is going to withstand all those forces from being on a steep site,” he said.

“It will be an amazing building once it’s done.”

The home will include four bedrooms, five bathrooms, casual and formal dining, a new pool and deck, golf area, gym and sauna, terraces, service kitchen, parking for two vehicles, a car lift as well as extensive landscaping.

The initial development application was refused by Woollahra Council in October last year but the Land and Environment Court later upheld an appeal by Empire Project Management.

That decision followed some design changes as well as a condition the site’s construction “will not have an adverse impact on the amenity or aesthetic appearance of the foreshore”.

Villa Florida was originally built for grazier Harold Coffill and stayed within the family until 1976.

Its most famous owner was comedian Barry Humphries, in the 1980s, who later sold it for $2.52 million. Humphries passed away in Sydney this year, aged 89, following complications from hip surgery.

Residentialdo not useAustraliaConstructionConstructionSector
AUTHOR
Ralph Nicholson
More articles by this author
ADVERTISEMENT
TOP STORIES
Improving capacity using immersion cooling instead of the traditional cooling systems used in data centres today.
Exclusive

The Cloud in Your Basement: How Cooling Tech Will Reshape Data Centres

Renee McKeown
5 Min
EPISSOD Centurion, Mac Park EDM
Exclusive

From Singapore to Sydney: Centurion Digs into Australian Living Sectors

Clare Burnett
6 Min
The Treehouse Frasers Community Studio Johnston.
Exclusive

How Designing for Connection is Creating Highrise Returns

Vanessa Croll
8 Min
Exclusive

Launching Queensland’s Future: The Man Guiding the Million-Home Plan

Phil Bartsch
10 Min
Singapore Smart City AI hero
Exclusive

AI Gaining Pace But ‘You Cannot Synthesise Soul’

Clare Burnett
6 Min
View All >
Brisbane Adelaide Street Russo Tower DA hero
Development

Rich-Lister Jobs Queen Pitches Pencil-Thin Brisbane Tower

Phil Bartsch
Mirvac is expanding its WA portfolio with an 83ha site in Perth’s north-east corridor of Bullsbrook
Residential

Mirvac Adds Bullsbrook Site to Perth Greenfield Plans

Renee McKeown
El Toro Hotel Revamp EDM
Hotel

Eight-Storey Hotel Planned for Mexican Pub Site at Liverpool

Clare Burnett
The $99-million project will keep the on-site motel and develop its car park into a 126-room five-star hotel…
LATEST
Brisbane Adelaide Street Russo Tower DA hero
Development

Rich-Lister Jobs Queen Pitches Pencil-Thin Brisbane Tower

Phil Bartsch
3 Min
Mirvac is expanding its WA portfolio with an 83ha site in Perth’s north-east corridor of Bullsbrook
Residential

Mirvac Adds Bullsbrook Site to Perth Greenfield Plans

Renee McKeown
2 Min
El Toro Hotel Revamp EDM
Hotel

Eight-Storey Hotel Planned for Mexican Pub Site at Liverpool

Clare Burnett
3 Min
Improving capacity using immersion cooling instead of the traditional cooling systems used in data centres today.
Exclusive

The Cloud in Your Basement: How Cooling Tech Will Reshape Data Centres

Renee McKeown
5 Min
View All >
ADVERTISEMENT
Article originally posted at: https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/jim-angelis-manion-12-tivoli-avenue-rose-bay