High Rise Developer Cements Foundation As Self Made Billionaire
Eighteen towers by December, a $24 million Sydney debut and clubs from Toorak to Dubai: the developer is scaling his empire on private capital and his own terms.
Tim Gurner has never been short of conviction as his development pipeline swells toward 18 towers under construction by December, the Melbourne developer is doubling down on the structure that built it, private capital, patient backers and a balance sheet he answers for himself.
The Gurner Group founder has committed $15 million to expanding Saint Haven Black in Toorak, the invitation-only tier of his private wellness club brand, only months after a $5 million upgrade of the South Yarra club. Sydney has just opened its first Saint Haven, a $24 million club across six levels, where the bathhouse sits alongside The Portal, an immersive listening room built around a 360-degree speaker system designed to settle the nervous system. Six more projects are due to launch before the end of the year.
The growth is funded the way Gurner prefers, privately with Gurner quoted as saying the business will always remain private, with no obligation to report to the corporate regulator, and he has consistently has declined to put a number on his own wealth, although this year's Financial Review Rich List estimates it to be in the region of $1.14 billion.
The Toorak works show where the brand is heading, a new level above the signature bathhouse will house a diagnostic hub offering MRI and CT scanning with blood analysis, alongside a full-time concierge, a 140-seat restaurant, a business club with a boardroom and private booths, a full pickleball court and a gym doubled in size. The club's longevity suite, offering IV infusions, red light therapy and pulsed electromagnetic field treatment, will grow to three times its current footprint, and cosmetic treatments arrive in Toorak for the first time. A speakeasy bar will open behind a bookshelf. When the renovation completes around November with just 30 memberships to be released from the waitlist, each subject to referral and formal vetting.
The ambition runs past fitness, Gurner has cast the clubs as a modern answer to the Melbourne Club and the Australia Club, built around longevity medicine rather than the sauna-and-recovery offering he regards as commodified.
Saint Haven launched in 2023 and now counts five Melbourne clubs and one in Sydney, with Bondi Beach and Mosman under construction for 2027 and 2028, a Gold Coast club in planning, a Dubai club, the largest yet, expected next year, and a signed agreement for a site in New York's West Village. For a brand three years old, the map is filling quickly, on Gurner's terms and nobody else's.
While some may argue about the semantics of how many zeros are in his bank account Mr Gurner seems firmly focused on how to deliver value in the enterprises he is rapidly developing and looking ahead to building for the future.
