Global investment giant Blackstone has sold the ritzy Capital Golf Club to Lindsay Fox and family for close to $100 million.
Capital Golf Club (CGC) is an 18-hole course in Heatherton, in Melbourne’s southeast, considered one of the most prestigious courses in Australia.
It was built by property developer Lloyd Williams for an estimated $50 million, and was acquired in 2013 by Crown, led then by James Packer, for $68 million.
The upmarket course was reserved for the casino’s most affluent patrons and generated hundreds of millions in revenue. But the 2021 royal commissions brought greater restrictions on the casino, aiming to minimise criminal activity, and Crown struggled to attract as many lucrative customers.
In 2022 the world’s largest alternative asset manager, Blackstone, with $915 billion in assets under management, completed the acquisition of Crown Resorts in what was the largest transaction to date for the firm in Asia-Pacific.
The transaction included resort and casino properties in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
Adopting a strategy to focus on Crown’s key Australian assets, CGC was deemed non-core and put to market. Proceeds from the sale will assist plans to refurbish the company’s casino, hotel and apartment properties.
CGC’s availability triggered something of a bidding war, which included another investor group backed by Packer, vying for the course and adjacent public-access driving range, Melbourne Golf Academy.
Crown is the major sponsor of the 2025 Australian Open golf tournament, 4-7 December, and is committed to providing access to the club for guests.
The Fox family is led by patriarch Lindsay Fox, founder of trucking giant Linfox, with a personal fortune estimated at $5.7 billion, and his son Andrew.
The family’s business empire also includes the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, hospitality assets and airports, and Andrew Fox says they are honoured to steer the club’s next phase of custodianship, and “build upon its legacy”.
