PORT DOUGLAS ICON LISTS $7M LUXURY VILLA
Local icon John Morris is selling Villa 15 from his luxe Escapes Collection in Port Douglas, an architect-designed, five-bedroom villa with a wraparound pool and bold tropical style.
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Local property icon and Far North Queensland developer, John Morris, is offloading one of his luxury villas in Port Douglas.
The 97-year-old, known as “Mr Port Douglas” thanks to his efforts in putting the coastal town on the tourism map, has recently completed a $50 million 17-villa development known as The Escapes Collection on Rachel Carson Lane in the popular holiday town.
Morris has been credited with transforming a sleepy seaside village into a thriving holiday hotspot after developing the Radisson Treetops Resort, the Toressian Resort (now known as Reef Resort Villas), and Cayman Villas.
Port Douglas’ most well-known hotel, the Sheraton Mirage, even bears Morris’s stamp after he collaborated on the development with Christopher Skase before the infamous businessman’s downfall.
Now Villa 15 of The Escapes Collection has hit the market with $7 million price expectations through Queensland Sotheby’s agent, Caroline Yarr.
The FIRB-approved residence is one of a collective developed by Morris’ family business, which counts his daughters among the team, with Janet as interior designer and Wendy in marketing.
Nine homes in collection have already sold, achieving prices between $3.65 million and $7 million. Sold to buyers from Sydney, Melbourne, New Zealand and South Australia, the glamorous holiday homes are earning as much as $2500 a night during the high season for a four-bedroom villa.
Fully furnished down to the linens and featuring hand-picked artwork by local artists, the grand residence is a turnkey property.
Several of the villas, including number 15, were designed by Gary Hunt, a renowned Port Douglas-based architect who specialises in island resorts and has lent his talents to rich lister Tim Gurner’s high profile projects such as The $250 million resort development, The Davidson on the site of the old Dougie’s backpacker hostel.
As a brand-new villa, the five-bedroom home combines bold contemporary bold aesthetics with its lush tropical setting to create a holistic Far North Queensland retreat.
Hunt’s savvy north-facing design, together with the bespoke interior design featuring unique pieces throughout, results in a modern footprint perfectly curated to its surrounds and northern Queensland climate.
The signature element of the property is its wraparound pool and all-weather alfresco spaces that seamlessly connect with inside living areas.
Inside, there are raw concrete and stone feature walls matched with spotted gum timber ceilings, as well as European oak, Italian porcelain Terrazzo and natural sisal carpeted floors.
At the heart of the floor plan, the family-friendly kitchen features Siemens appliances, an integrated fridge and freezer, Corian benchtops, and a unique Verde Luana marble splashback. For alfresco entertaining, the villa also has a complete outdoor kitchen.
Additional features at Villa 15 include a Savaria 4-person lift, Navurban sustainable timber laminate joinery, Astra Walker custom-made iron bronze tapware, Asko laundry appliances, remote-controlled blinds, pure linen curtains, ducted air-conditioning, solar panels and a double garage.
Select villas are designed by Gary Hunt, a renowned Port Douglas-based architect specialising in island resorts.
Melbourne developer and rich lister Tim Gurner have also engaged Gary on his Port Douglas developments, including three premium residences on ‘the hill’, which will set the benchmark for FNQ luxury residences, as well as the residential/resort development on Davidson Street.
Find out more about Villa 15, The Escape Collection Port Douglas at Queensland Sotheby’s, Port Douglas.
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Idaho is not a place that’s often associated with Medieval castles, but a pair have just hit the market for $6.25 million.
The imposing stone structures have towers, turrets, ramparts, arrow-slit windows and even a drawbridge, and might just be the most authentic-looking castles this side of the Atlantic.
“Who expects to see a castle like this in Idaho?” said listing agent Brenda Burk of Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty, who brought the property to the market last week. They are, she said, “extremely unusual.”
Schweitzer Castle and Château de Melusine, as they’re known, stand within Schweitzer Mountain Resort in the Selkirk Mountains and overlook the nearby mountain resort town of Sandpoint. They take in panoramic views of Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho’s largest lake.
The pair of ski-in/ski-out homes each have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and three stories, Burk explained. They are “so authentic,” she said. “Every single stone was handlaid.”
Schweitzer Castle, she said, wasn’t built for “functionality,” but has been modernized and adapted and now has everything a 21st-century residence requires, along with a dungeon, which for some buyers may also be a requisite.
The chateau, meanwhile, has a hot tub room with mountain views, as well as a garage.
The property is being sold furnished, and will come complete with the hand-carved statues, armor, mounted swords, stained-glass windows and a host of antiques dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.
The owner, an antique collector who couldn’t be reached for comment, “is always looking for that hidden jewel and he found that here,” Burk said.
The next custodian is likely to stem from a varied pool of buyers, Burk said, that would include “the trophy-home buyer, someone who can say ‘I own a castle.’”
The property could also appeal to someone looking for a vacation home, or a multi-generational estate, and beyond that “there’s the dreamers,” she said. “We definitely try to market to people who like Medieval history or maybe do Renaissance fairs.”
The seller “really wants it to go to someone with the same passion.”
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