Lachlan Murdoch calls in the renovators with $11.6 million plans for Bellevue Hill
Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch's Le Manoir, the 1928 Bellevue Hill estate, is set to get an $11.6 million redevelopment.
The SJB architectural plans are currently on display at Woollahra Council.
It involves alterations and additions to the existing mansion plus a new pool and pool house. It includes "construction of a new garage with security access areas with subterranean access to the dwelling".
The Murdochs paid $23 million for the mansion in late 2009. They also spent $2.63 million on an adjoining property in 2010.
Set on a 4,097-square-metre battleaxe block, Le Manoir had previously traded at £26,000 in 1956 when bought by the French government from May McDonald, the New Caledonian-born widow of solicitor Roy McDonald, who was the founding president of the Hydroponic Society of Australia.
Woollahra Library records indicate its design for the McDonalds was by Copeman and Lemont after the land was hived off the 1919 Rocky Park subdivision undertaken by jeweller Melen Myers.
The sale by the French government ranked among the 1,700 properties listed for sale in posts across the world as it sought to reduce its debt burden after the global financial crisis.
In the meantime they have a lease on Coolong, the Vaucluse beachfront residence of expats Ivan and Marina Ritossa.
It's the house the Murdochs wanted before they outbid nine other parties at the November 2009 auction of Le Manoir through Raine & Horne Double Bay agent Michael Pallier.
Coolong set the Sydney residential record when the Allco founder David Coe secured $45 million from the Ritossa family in 2008.
The Sydney record is now held by Villa Veneto, which the Banks family sold for a reputed $53 million in August 2010 through LJ Hooker agent Bill Malouf.
