Former F45 chief executive Adam Gilchrist has put his $14 million Freshwater house up for auction less than a week after the US share price for the gym franchise plummeted on Wall Street.
Gilchrist, who stepped down as chief executive last week, has been a high-profile property investor of recent years, best known for his bullish record-setting house price purchases from Byron Bay to Freshwater, largely fueled by the fitness training franchise he co- founded in 2013 with one gym in Sydney.
F45 founder Adam Gilchrist and major shareholder Mark Wahlberg on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for the company’s IPO in July 2021.Credit:Getty
In late 2017 Gilchrist’s wife Eli Gilchrist (nee Havas) bought a Californian bungalow at Freshwater overlooking the beach for $5.4 million, sight unseen, paying $1.3 million over the reserve.
But it was the contemporary three-level house next door that reset local house price records when Gilchrist purchased it in 2019 for $14 million amid plans to knock it down to make way for a swimming pool to go with his bungalow next door.
No DA to demolish the house was ever lodged with Northern Beaches Council, and the DA to demolish the Californian bungalow next door to make way for a Walter Barda Design house at a cost of $2.57 million was later withdrawn.
Adam Gilchrist purchased the Californian bungalow (left) in 2017 and the three-level residence (right) for $14 million in 2019.Credit:James Brickwood
The Californian bungalow is not expected to be listed, but the $14 million record-setting residence has been quietly offered to buyers for more than a year. It carries a Macquarie Bank mortgage.
On Monday, just days after the F45 share price hit a low of $US1.93, Clarke & Humel’s Michael Clarke launched a sales campaign for the Freshwater residence ahead of an August 27 auction.
Clarke offered “no comment” to inquiries, but the marketing now refers to Gilchrist’s “demolition job” as a “cutting-edge architectural design” on “an unsurpassed beachfront setting”.