Goldman Sachs’ Australian boss closes in on $5.3m Whale Beach reno

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Goldman Sachs’ local chief executive, Simon Rothery, has for years managed to keep a relatively low profile for one of the nation’s most powerful investment bankers.

So it was little surprise to see the well-connected investment banker – who counts former treasurer Josh Frydenberg as a one-time tennis partner and whose bank advises Lachlan Murdoch’s News Corp – take the same approach to a major development proposal for his Whale Beach weekender.

The names of Rothery and his wife, Alison, were nowhere to be seen in the Northern Beaches Council’s March assessment report and determination notice of their application to move forward with a proposed $5.3 million renovation of their property. (Not uncommon for higher-profile, wealthier applicants who hire architects to handle the process.)

But more than five months after the application was lodged in November last year, the couple finally appears to be closing in on a green light.

According to the council’s March 20 assessment report, the Rotherys have brought in high-profile architect and property developer Susan Rothwell, who along with her husband Garry was in 2020 crowned a Palm Beach land baron, for a knockdown-rebuild.

The plans for the property, which appears to be a weekender away from the Killara home the couple bought for $7.5 million in 2007, propose to demolish........

© Brisbane Times