Leon Kamenev’s dream home for his $80 million block knocked back

For Sydney’s trophy home hunters it seems the only thing harder than securing a spare tract of waterfront land in the eastern suburbs is getting DA approval to build their dream mansion on the site.

It’s a dilemma multimillionaire Leon Kamenev became all too familiar with this week when the Land and Environment Court rejected his bid to build a 40-metre-wide mansion on his amalgamated site on Vaucluse Bay.

While Woollahra Council has already approved the demolition of the existing four dwellings to be replaced by a new residence, the Land and Environment Court commissioner Susan O’Neill said the DA plans for Kamenev house “represents a monopolisation of the harbour views in the locality”.

The decision upheld Woollahra Council’s earlier rejection of a DA for a contemporary residence with various living rooms, a gymnasium, separate guest suite, cellar, swimming pool, study, cinema and garaging designed by Tanner Kibble Denton Architects at an estimated cost of more than $10 million.

Sourcing the 4100 square metre parcel of land was not much easier for the Russian immigrant who co-founded Menulog. Apart from the $79.7 million he forked out in 2016 for the four titles there were also protracted negotiations that originally were hoped to include the battle-axe block next door long held by the Foulsham family.



At the time the Foulsham family were steadfast in their refusal to sell their 1966-built home, but as Kamenev’s DA was being quashed this week the Foulshams changed their mind and put their home up for sale with bullish $20 million hopes through Michael Pallier, of Sotheby’s International.

At that price, if Kamenev bought the Foulsham property it would take his consolidation to five lots forming more than 5000 square metres at a cost of $100 million and reinstate the original Todhunter estate.

The Foulshams bought their 770 square metre property in 1964 for 19,250 pounds from James and Harold Todhunter. At the time it was a subdivision of a larger estate owned by the Todhunter family since the 1920s and with a renowned garden that was planted by the staff of the Royal Botanic Gardens in the late 1920s.

Kamenev, whose worth was estimated at $558 million on last year’s Financial Review Rich List, established a new benchmark in private residential consolidations when he bought his adjoining properties in 2016.

The $80 million deal included about $60 million for the two contemporary waterfront houses owned by Colleen Shein, wife of technology entrepreneur David Shein, and almost $20 million divided between the two, smaller street-front properties.