Arnaout first turned heads in Sydney in 2019 when he bought the iconic Steyne Hotel in beachside Manly for a reputed $65 million, from a group including fellow Rich Listers John Singleton and Robert Whyte.
However, it stepped up a notch in 2016 when Iris acquired a development site in Newcastle’s struggling east end, and set about winning council approval for a four-block, 700-apartment project set to be worth $1 billion by the time it is complete in two years. “COVID taught me that Australia is more like seven countries than seven states and territories,” Arnaout says.Yet Arnaout’s ambitions once stretched no further than buying himself a job.
“Getting married and having kids so young, that gave me the hunger and desire to set my family up for the brightest future,” he says.With his parents’ lessons on stability fresh in his mind, Arnaout got his panel-beating ticket but “hated” the auto body work, and within six months was a fleet salesman for Holden, then Ford.
But nobody had predicted the impact of the Sydney Olympics. Positioned next to the main interchange railway station for Olympic Park, and with rights to sell official stamps and medallions of the Millenium Games, the business earned $2.5 million in its first full year.“Suddenly, I had real money, so I went looking for something with even bigger cash flow, that would also let me try being a property developer,” Arnaout says.
“700-apartment project set to be worth $1 billion by the time it is complete in two years.”