$80m: Chemist Warehouse’s Jack Gance buys Toorak mega-site

The 6340sq m Lansell Rd, Toorak property bought by Jack Gance and wife Evelyn.

Melbourne has notched one of its most expensive residential property sales of all time with a more than $80m sale in Toorak to Jack Gance, one of the founders of Chemist Warehouse.

The double allotment on Lansell Rd was listed for sale by Andy Zhang, who heads development firm V-Leader — which is currently trying to sell a stalled office tower in a high-profile corner of Melbourne’s CBD.

The deal was brokered by Kay & Burton’s Ross Savas and Nick Kenyon, who both declined to confirm the buyers name or price.

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However, industry sources across Toorak have noted the co-founder of Chemist Warehouse, Jack Gance, as the buyer.

Mr Gance was among those to make vast amounts of money from the more than $30bn merger of Chemist Warehouse with Sigma Healthcare earlier this year.

Industry sources have mooted prices from $80m to $88m, in line with its advertised guide, while others have suggested it could have topped $95m.

In those ranges, the combo deal would be either the second or third biggest ever signed for a residential home site in Melbourne.

The biggest is a more than $100m sale of former Essendon boss Paul Little’s Toorak estate, Coonac, that emerged earlier this year and was brokered by Mr Savas and colleague Gerald Delany.

The home is believed to have sold to another pharmaceuticals industry billionaire Dennis Bastas, who heads Arrotex Pharmaceuticals.

The expansive site, compiled from two homes, is one of the larger landholdings in Toorak.

Mario Verrocchi, Sam Gance and Jack Gance celebrate the merger of Chemist Warehouse with Sigma Healthcare. Picture: The Australian / Nadir Kinani.

Crypto casino richlister Ed Craven bought another Toorak mansion on St Georges Rd for just over $80m in 2022, via Marshall White’s Marcus Chiminello.

While the Lansell Rd sale is likely to surpass this figure, it represents a pair of properties compiled by Mr Zhang over a period of six years that spans 6340sq m.

That makes it a similar size to Mr Craven’s purchase, but well below the about 1.08ha of Coonac.

Records show Mr Zhang bought the first of the two homes for $17m in 2015 and the second in 2021 for $22m.

If sold for north of $80m, it represents a more than $40m uptick on the purchase prices — effectively doubling the outlay.

Jack Gance and wife Evelyn are no strangers to high end Toorak combination sales, with the pair buying neighbouring homes on Yar Orrong Rd for a combined sum north of $30m between 2018 and 2019.

The homes are also in the same street that Sam Gance, another of the three founders of Chemist Warehouse, bought a $43m mansion back in 2021

Mario Verrochi, the third founder of the pharmaceuticals chain, spent more than $20m on another Toorak mansion earlier this year.

The Coonac mansion sold for more than $100m earlier this year. Image: @melbournehousespotters

Construction is ongoing on a new megamansion at the property Ed Kraven bought for just over $80m in 2022.

The properties were listed for sale in September, with Mr Savas at the time touting it as a combination of exceptional scale, and unencumbered by heritage concerns.

In the aftermath of the sale, Mr Savas said it reflected the “remarkable strength of demand for Melbourne’s finest addresses” and indicated there had been interest from both local families, and international buyers.

“Melbourne continues to be viewed as a safe, globally desirable destination for long-term residential investment, and this sale reinforces the city’s ability to attract interest at the highest level,” Mr Savas said.

“The calibre of inquiry we received demonstrates that opportunities like this hold universal appeal across continents and generations.”

Earlier this week pundits and Toorak agents flagged concerns that high-end sales for certain homes in Toorak had been impacted by Victoria’s unending stream of government interventions in the property market, with some indicating homes requiring development or significant renovations were turning well-heeled buyers off due to land tax costs.

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