Billionaire Gretel Packer is set to create a mega penthouse

PHOTO: Gretel Packer

Billionaire Gretel Packer is set to create a mega penthouse in the Art Deco treasure the Macleay Regis, following her $9m purchase of the sub-penthouse.

Gretel Packer’s $22m penthouse bid

The 165sqm two-bedroom, two-bathroom Potts Point unit she bought on Wednesday through Sydney Sotheby’s International’s Clint Ballard adjoins the 350sqm three-bedroom, three-bathroom penthouse that Packer bought at auction for $8.75m in 2017.

Potts Point backpackers sells for huge figure

The opportunity is a dream come true for Packer, having offered $22m to buy two neighbouring penthouses in the Potts Point development, Omnia, in 2019 — but missing out.

Gretel Packer would have a “priceless” penthouse should she merge the two apartments, as expected. Picture: Robert Edwards

The two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment was originally part of the grand whole-floor penthouse originally owned by Woolworths co-founder Percy Christmas.

And well-placed sources say she should have little difficulty merging the two units to create one huge apartment of 865sqm in the building inspired by New York’s Rockefeller Apartments, as that’s the way it was when it was originally built in 1938.

Every room has a cracking view.

One of the Woolworths founders, Percy Christmas, was the first owner of the penthouse and it’s understood that following his death in 1947, the sub-penthouse was created to accommodate family members.

‘Aussie’ John Symond’s wife Amber buys Simpson at Potts Point for $12.5m

“Now, hopefully, the two apartments can be re-joined to create one large apartment, as it was originally,” the source advised.

It’s full of character too.

And there’s a precedent for apartments being merged at the back of the building in the past.

The theory is that Packer, the daughter of the late media tycoon Kerry Packer, plans to ultimately move into the merged penthouse, currently simply an investment property.

At present, Packer lives in the Bellevue Hill Edwardian residence Winson, a neighbour to the famous Rona estate, that she bought for $11.25m in 2000. And she also owns a whole-floor space in Hudson House in the city that she bought for $8,371,000 in 2016.