Kevin Seymour\u2019s signature is written across the Brisbane skyline, his Seymour Group deeply entwined with the evolution of the state capital.<\/p>\n
Think Queens Plaza, Newstead Green, Macarthur Central and Admiralty Towers, that inner-city precinct which back in the 1990s introduced Brisbane to the concept of the high-rise, inner-city village.<\/p>\n
All of them leapt out of the mind of this 86-year-old builder, and Kevin is adamant that he\u2019s not done with building yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be the oldest developer in Queensland by the age of 100,\u2019\u2019 he says with some confidence over Rib Eye Fillets at \u201cThe Creek\u2019\u2019 – the restaurant overlooking Albion Park overseen by charming CEO Jim Waddell which Kevin insists serves steak just as good as they do at the Breakfast Creek next door, \u201cbut at a much better price.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be better than Steve Wynn.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Kevin may have already done better than Steven Wynn, a fellow billionaire only a handful of years younger than himself who helped transform Las Vegas in the 80s and 90s with landmark properties such as the Mirage.<\/p>\n
Yet Las Vegas developers come and go – Kirk Kerkorian, Sheldon Adelson, Howard Hughes, even Benjamin \u201cBugsy\u201d Siegel had his time in the sun.<\/p>\n
Kevin, on the other hand, has been with us half a century after founding the Seymour Group in 1976, and his reputation as an honourable man eclipses those of the Vegas luminaries.<\/p>\n
His buildings stay standing, and he\u2019s been able to navigate his way through the legal shoals that present themselves to any developer without falling from grace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have never had a legal action with a local authority,\u2019\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n
He must have seen a few dodgy dealings in his time, I venture, given he was in business during those pre-Fitzgerald years when Queensland displayed a tolerance for developers who possessed what might be termed a \u201croguish charm.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know that area on the corner of Anne and Edward streets?\u2019\u2019 he asks.<\/p>\n
I do. Forty years ago in 1986 it was the site of one of Queensland\u2019s most ambitious infrastructure project – a 442 metre high pipe dream labelled \u201cThe Tallest Building In The World\u2019\u2019 and enthusiastically backed by then Premier Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen.<\/p>\n
The developer was John Minuzzo whose Mainsel Investments group was going to complete the project within four years.<\/p>\n
Kevin and a developer colleague did a spot of \u201cdue diligence\u2019\u2019 into Minuzzo\u2019s past and decided (to put is as diplomatically as possible) that the project was not going to progress beyond a giant hole in the ground if Minuzzo was heading it.<\/p>\n
They presented their research to Sir Joh, but were totally ignored.<\/p>\n
That was a pity for Sir Joh, because the fallout from that one failed project is now widely credited as marking the beginning of his downfall as Queensland Premier.<\/p>\n
Given he has helped house thousands of people over the past century, what are his views on the present \u201chousing crisis?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Well, he\u2019s seen a few of them over the decades. <\/p>\n
Whether they be housing slumps or housing booms or housing stagnations, there\u2019s always something happening in the real estate sector.<\/p>\n
Kevin is careful not to criticise the Federal Government\u2019s latest changes in property taxes which some are suggesting have put a brake on real estate prices.<\/p>\n
But he doesn\u2019t want to see (as he has in the past) young couples carefully save up their deposit money, secure their loan, then find the value of their property has sunk well below purchase price while they battle to meet higher mortgage payments.<\/p>\n
\u201dIt can happen – you can go under water – and I hate to see that happen to anyone,\u2019\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n
Billionaires (he may not be an actual billionaire, he just regularly appears on the rich lists) often have a head start in life via their parents but Kevin was certainly not born into great wealth.<\/p>\n
His father Bill who came up from Sydney made good money in car parks just as the post war car revolution was hitting its stride.<\/p>\n
Kings Parking group grew into a huge success story in the 60s in Clem Jones\u2019 Brisbane as the Mayor encouraged the car revolution, edging out the trams as a favoured form of transportation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents were not well-off people. They were just working people but we made money out of parking,\u2019\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how we became involved in development.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used the cash flow from the car parks to finance the development side.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
He distinctly remembers his old man used an old Gladstone Bag to collect and carry the car park money which was counted in an old tin shed.<\/p>\n
It was a habit he ended up copying when he was first employed as a young bloke at Doomben and Eagle Farm racecourses, picking up cash from the Totes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey gave me this Gladstone Bag to pick up the money in, and inside that bag there was a pistol,\u2019\u2019 he remembers laughing.<\/p>\n
He never touched the pistol. He wasn\u2019t even sure how to use it but he remembers it was definitely there to deter thieves.<\/p>\n
Then he asks me to leave that little historical titbit out of my copy because the cops might file retrospective charges related to unregistered firearms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat goes in!\u2019\u2019 I tell him, and he laughs, admitting it would be difficult to prosecute a case nearly 70 years old.<\/p>\n
Today he can afford to take it easy, indulging in his passion for Harness Racing which began with a $200 bet at 10\/1 on a horse called Crazy Chief when he was a young, newly wed man.<\/p>\n
The $200 had been set aside for a sofa which wife Kay wanted. Kay got her sofa and they both got the horse which Kevin bought, marking their entry point into a lifelong passion.<\/p>\n
Kay is credited as the driving force into breeding with the establishment of Egmont Park Stud in Toowoomba while the Seymours entered the Harness Racing Hall of Fame in 2012.<\/p>\n
Their seven-old, Leap To Fame, one of the world\u2019s greatest pacers who has earned the couple more than $6 million and was Australian Harness Horse of the Year in 2023\/24, won the first round of the Inter Dominion heats at Albion Park last weekend.<\/p>\n
But, aside from the Albion Park trots and a bit of travel, the building will go on. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s quite serious about the bid to reach a century, still planning projects which bring the cranes out to do their handiwork on the Brisbane skyline.<\/p>\n
Rib Eye Fillet, chips, salad mushroom sauce.<\/p>\n
9\/10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Seymour\u2019s signature is written across the Brisbane skyline, his Seymour Group deeply entwined with the evolution of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,281411,281400,460,134,8690],"class_list":["post-793904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brisbane-news","tag-courier-mail-news","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-queensland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}