Landscape gardener snares Myer family home

The Grant Avenue home, developed in 1936.

Jack Merlo has snapped up one of two Toorak mansions offered by Myer family members last year.

The Myer family held 4 Grant Avenue nearly 70 years.

The landscape gardener is speculated to be paying about $19 million for the double storey Regency style dwelling at 4 Grant Avenue.

That result would be a touch less than guide ($20-$22m) when it was listed in October

Vendors, Baillieu “Bails” Myer and wife, Sarah, have held some 70 years.

Forbes Global Properties’ Michael Gibson and Robert Fletcher were the agents.

Following the deal, just one Myer mansion in Toorak remains for sale – Cranlana, on Clendon Road, which hit the market in September with c$100m price hopes – a surprise listing.

Gardener’s Toorak digs

Penned in 1936 by Yuncken Freeman & Griffiths – also behind the Sidney Myer Music Bowl – 4 Grant Ave was built for piano heir Douglas Carnegie and his wife, art collector, Margaret (story continues below).

Yuncken Freeman & Griffiths designed 4 Grant Avenue.
Robert and Elizabeth Zagame bought a Toorak home from Jack Merlo last year.

With four bedrooms, it occupies a 1596 square metre block in a blue ribbon of the suburb, between Clendon and Irving roads.

The deal comes about 10 months since Mr Merlo and his husband, Ricardo, sold a Heyington Place dwelling to hotelier Robert Zagame and wife, Elizabeth, for $17.5m.

In 2023 meanwhile, the same sellers divested a Linlithgow Rd home in the suburb for a significant rise on the $8.15m they paid three years earlier, before renovating.

Jack Merlo banked a profit selling a Linlithgow Road mansion after a renovation.

Cotton On chief executive officer Peter Johnson and wife, Kim, were those buyers.

Toorak, about six kilometres south east of the CBD, is considered Melbourne’s most exclusive suburb despite the median house value (c$3.9m) reflecting a 21.3pc drop on the third quarter, according to Real Estate Institute of Victoria research.

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Marc Pallisco

A former property analyst and print journalist, Marc is the publisher of realestatesource.com.au.