Biotech chief Alex Szabo puts Hawthorn East home Cheverny on the market

US expat Alex Szabo, the chief executive of biotechnology company Jomar Life Research, and his wife Carolyn Tucek-Szabo, the head of regulatory affairs with Glaxo Smith Kline, are downsizing from their French provincial-style family home, Cheverny, in Melbourne’s Hawthorn East.

The vine-covered five-bedroom dwelling, behind a front garden with bronze status and lavender trees, is expected to sell for between $2.8 million and $3.08 million following an expressions-of-interest campaign closing on September 11.

The Rosslyn Street home is in a prized pocket of the exclusive suburb, close to a swag of private schools, the Burke Road shops and Rivoli Theatre.

On a 611-square-metre plot with a pool, the property also includes a fully appointed office — which is bigger than the formal lounge room — and an upstairs reading nook capturing treetop vistas.

The Szabos – who bought the house in 2004 – are being represented by Marshall White‘s James Redfern and Davide Lettieri and plan to relocate elsewhere in Melbourne following any sale.

A deal would be the latest struck by a biotechnology entrepreneur in the city.

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Earlier this month, Leon Serry – the director of Circadian Technologies, where Szabo worked for two years until 2010, banked $7.3 million (against price hopes of $5 million) for a low-rise office in the Toorak Village which is now set to be razed for an office-apartment complex. 

See more photos of the Hawthorn East home at Domain

Ronnie Burns lists Cradle Mountain estate Appin Hall

​Appin Hall, the 13-hectare French provincial estate in Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain region, is on the market for around $3 million.

Ronnie Burns has operated his Appin Hall Children’s Foundation from the property for 20 years. Photo: Supplied

The prestigious Cradle Mountain Road, Erriba, address is held by entertainer, architect and philanthropist Ronnie Burns.

After purchasing the title deeds two decades ago, Burns used the residence to set up the Appin Hall Children’s Foundation, a non-profit organisation that provides music therapy for disadvantaged youths.

Dominic Romeo, of Unique Estates, is marketing the property for either residential or commercial use, but says the majority of interest has come from corporate buyers who hope to convert the estate into a tourist venture.

Burns is now looking to move across to the mainland to establish a new base for his foundation in Gippsland, Victoria.

See more of Appin Hall at Domain