Slonim, Velik & Emanuel

Slonim, Velik & Emanuel
FormerlySlonim & Velik
TypePrivate
IndustryFinance
Law
Founded1949 in Melbourne, Australia
FounderMaurice Slonim
Leon Velik
Defunct1979
SuccessorSlonim, Velik & Sauberni
Key people
  • Maurice Slonim (until 1969)
  • Leon Velik
  • Graeme Emanuel (from 1969)
DivisionsS & V Investments

Slonim, Velik & Emanuel was a private entrepreneurial law firm based in Melbourne, Australia. Established shortly after the Second World War, the firm offered a range of services, particularly to Melbourne's growing post-war migrant community, and became a prominent commercial law firm serving Melbourne's Jewish community. Through its investment arm worked with many notable property developers of the era.[1]

History

The firm was established as a partnership between lawyers Leon Velik and Maurice Slonim, whose families were related by marriage.[2] Both studied law at the University of Melbourne and served in the same training unit during the Second World War.[3] According to Velik, the two agreed during the war that, if they both survived, they would establish a law firm together. Several years after the war ended, Slonim contacted Velik to remind him of the agreement. Although Velik had recently become a junior partner at a Collins Street law firm, he honoured the commitment, resigned from his position, and joined Slonim in founding the partnership.[4]

Slonim & Velik was established in 1949 and initially operated from a ground-floor office on Lygon Street in Carlton. Located in the centre of Melbourne's Jewish community, the firm provided a range of commercial legal services, including lease and partnership agreements. Many of its early clients were Holocaust survivors who had established small businesses, such as grocery stores and milk bars.[4] The firm's early growth was aided by Maurice Slonim's father, Judah Slonim, a founder of the Elwood Shule and a prominent member of Melbourne's Jewish community with extensive business and social connections.[5]

One of their early clients was Luigi Grollo, a concreter who was building small homes in Northcote before his family business grew to become Grocon.[4] In March 1958, the firm relocated to the Lombard Building. Around this time, it began acting for property developers including Paul Fayman and Raymond Borg. Much of this work was undertaken through the firm's financial services arm, S & V Investments, which managed investment funds on behalf of clients and invested them in a range of assets, including mortgage lending.[6]

Development Consolidated

Leon Velik (right) with developer Paul Fayman at the 1959 announcement of Raymond Borg's Sunbury Satellite Town scheme

Development Consolidated was a private company formed in the late 1950s through a partnership agreement between the extended families of Maurice Slonim, Leon Velik and financier Paul Fayman. It was primarily active in the realestate, food production, retail and bowling industries.[7]


The other major proposal was to build an Australian version of Disneyland at Laverton, which was ultimately deemed unfeasible. [8]

Development Consolidated was dissolved and much of its assets were divested and put into the Masaga Group (later Hanover Holdings Ltd), which was jointly controlled by Paul Fayman, Maurice Alter and George Herscu.

Housing estates

The company subdivided many hundreds of acres of farmland into residential estates, particularly in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. These developments were often flanked by shopping strips or service stations.

Years Name Location Notes
1958–1959 Highburn Estate Mount Waverley 120 blocks[9][10]
1958–1964 Waverley Views Glen Waverley 220 blocks[11]
1959–1965 Marriott Estate Glen Waverley 50 blocks
1959–1960 Forest Hill Heights Forest Hill 190 blocks
1959–1961 – Springvale 25 blocks[12]
1960–1961 – Clayton 90 blocks[13]
1960–1961 – Altona North 110 blocks
1960–1961 Warragul Park Warragul 40 blocks[14][15]
1964– Amstel Park Estate Mount Waverley 400 blocks
1964–1965 Valency Court Mitcham 18 blocks
1963–1967 Eliza Downs Estate Frankston ?[16]
1964 – Clayton South 45 blocks[17]

Shopping centres

The group notably partnered with Raymond Borg and proposed two highly ambitious American-themed developments through a firm called Forest Hill Heights. One was for an ultra-modern shopping centre in Forest Hill, which had first been proposed by Fayman in 1957. It now operates as Forest Hill Chase.

Year Name Location Notes
1957–1964 Forest Hills Shopping Centre Forest Hill 70 shops
1960–1961 Borrack Square Altona North 30 shops[18]

Bowling alleys

In 1959, the group began talks with AMF to specially import Tenpin bowling equipment from the United States.

Opened Name Location Notes
1961 Hawthorn Bowl Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn
1961 Coburg Bowl Sydney Road, Coburg
1961 Heidelberg Bowl Bell Street, Heidelberg
1961 Footscray Bowl Irving Street, Footscray
1962 Moorabbin Bowl Nepean Highway, Moorabbin [19]
1962 Hiway Bowl Maroondah Highway, Ringwood
1962 Box Hill Bowl Nelson Road, Box Hill
1963 Star Bowl Fryers Street, Shepparton [20]

Restaurants

1960–1963 Monash Hotel Hospitality Clayton –[21]

Maurice Slonim died from a brain tumour in August 1969. Around the same time, Leon Velik's brother-in-law, Graeme Emanuel, was admitted as a partner, and the firm adopted the name Slonim, Velik & Emanuel. It partnered with realestate firm Hanover Holdings in the 1970s, and assisted in its controversial privatisation.

Under the Slonim, Velik & Emanuel partnership agreement, the surviving partners were entitled to acquire the share of a deceased partner. Following Slonim's death and Emanuel's subsequent departure to the United States, Velik became the firm's sole managing partner and retained a majority interest in the business, assuming responsibility for its management, staff, and client practice.

The business was wound up in 1979, after which Velik formally entered the export abattoir industry through a partnership with the Fayman and Rotstein families.

References

  • Leon Velik - Looking Forward: A Memoir (2020)
  1. ↑ "Calwell claims £20,000". The Argus. 24 May 1955. p. 1 – via National Library Australia.
  2. ↑ "Family notices: Engagements". Table Talk. 22 November 1923. p. 13 – via National Library Australia.
  3. ↑ "Service at Bonegilla on Sunday". The Australian Jewish Herald. 18 December 1941. p. 3 – via TROVE.
  4. 1 2 3 Velik, Leon (2020). Looking Forward: a Memoir. Melbourne: Real Film Publishing. pp. 77–79. ISBN 978-0-6488272-2-1.
  5. ↑ "Maurice Slonim". The Australian Jewish Times. 21 August 1969. p. 5 – via State Library Victoria.
  6. ↑ "Edited interview with Juliette Brodsky for Foleys List oral history and filmed by Elisabeth Crosbie 20 April 2015" (PDF).
  7. ↑ [VPRS 267/P0005/13499] Civil Case Files: Gippsland Acceptance Company v Berenice Emanuel, Fayman Holdings Pty Ltd, Slomore Pty Ltd, Gloreon Holdings Pty Ltd, Cecil Sharpe, Joy Sharpe, Roslyn Sharpe, James Jay Pty Ltd. Public Record Office Victoria: Supreme Court Victoria. 1963.
  8. ↑ "£5 Million Fun Park May be Built on Big Laverton Site". The Age. 4 October 1960. p. 5.
  9. ↑ Lot Plan 44997. Land Titles Office of Victoria. 1958.
  10. ↑ "Tenders: Street Construction, Highburn Estate". The Age. 20 September 1958. p. 47.
  11. ↑ "Syndal Lots Average £1108 at Auction". The Age. 11 August 1958. p. 8.
  12. ↑ Elaine Ct and Billing St
  13. ↑ Between Wellington and Dandenong Roads
  14. ↑ Not to be confused with a different subdivision of the same name from 1902, the Warragul Park Estate was developed in the early 1960s and comprised 41 home sites and a proposed group of shops at Burke Street between McCulloch Avenue and Cornish Street.
  15. ↑ "Land auction, Warragul Park Estate". The Age. 23 November 1960. p. 31.
  16. ↑ "Your introduction to gracious living: Eliza Downs Estate". The Age. 25 January 1963. p. 13.
  17. ↑ In and around Simon Street
  18. ↑ "Altona schemes to be discussed". The Age. 30 May 1958. p. 3.
  19. ↑ "Victoria's largest bowling centre opens tommorrow". The Age. 16 November 1962. p. 13.
  20. ↑ "Applications are invited for the lease of a restaurant and snack bar in Shepparton's new modern indoor bowling centre". The Age. 9 March 1960.
  21. ↑ "£70,000 Motel". The Sun?. 19 March 1960 – via J. B. Were & Son company research files.
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