There’s nothing to do but enjoy the luxurious surrounds while taking in the sea view in this five-star residence
2 minIf Melbourne is the most liveable city in Australia then the inner circle location of St Kilda must be amongst the most liveable suburbs in the southern capital. Vibrant restaurants and cultural activities, including the iconic Luna Park, are within easy distance of the popular beach, which is itself rimmed by parkland and the Bay Trail.
Overlooking this view of bush, sand and sea is St Moritz at 14-16 The Esplanade. Designed by Fender Katsilidis, the building offers residents direct views of the beach, down the Peninsula and across the waters to Williamstown.
Completed less than two years ago, the exclusive residence was constructed on the former St Moritz ice rink. Since opening, it has become synonymous with the best of residential luxury design while offering facilities more commonly seen in five-star hotels, including a 25m pool, sauna and spa room, a fully equipped gym, a cryotherapy and floatation tank as well as a yoga and pilates space. In addition, there is also a library, a cinema and champagne bar plus a wine storage space, tasting room and private dining area.
While the properties were quick to sell, the sub penthouse has just come onto the market, offering a rare opportunity to buy into this boutique development. Positioned on the sixth floor, the three-bedroom apartment feels more like a house, with multiple thoughtfully planned living spaces and separate dining area. The marble kitchen is fully equipped for entertaining, with Gaggenau appliances, Vintec wine storage and restaurant-style Sub Zero fridges.
The master bedroom offers a full suite experience, with extensive wardrobe and dressing room and a sanctuary-style bathroom complete with generous bath and rainwater showerheads.
There’s also a dedicated four-car garage and fifth parking space, the final luxury for an outstanding property.
Address: 601G/14-16 St Moritz, The Esplanade, St Kilda
Agent: Michael Paproth 0488 300 800 The Agency Victoria
Open for inspection: Wednesday September 20, 4.30pm-5pm
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Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.
2 min
A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.
The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.
“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”
The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.
It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.
In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.
“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.
The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.
“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.
He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.
The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.
“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.
His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.
“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.
When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.
They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.
The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.
For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.
“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”
As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.
“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”
Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.
