Article – Sunday Mail:
The Power Pack
Volume 1
September 2004
p. 9
Naomi Triguboff-Travers cringes when she recalls the heady excesses of the 1980’s, when she experienced first-hand the decade’s catchphrase “greed is good”.
Every morning the then twenty-something investment banker was chauffeur-driven 10 blocks to work in a limousine from her three-storey townhouse, between New York’s Madison and Fifth avenues.
The Sydney-raised girl went to some of the most exclusive charity balls – buying a $10,000 gown for the event did not cause a moments hesitation.
Now, more than a decade later, Naomi does not miss such decadence.
Her biggest joy is spending time at her 1860’s farmhouse, 45 minute drive outside Melbourne, where husband Jeffrey likes to take their daughter Jaime, 12, and friends for hayrides on their red Noddy-like tractor.
“When you’re 20 it’s very big-eyes to go to those incredible charity balls and have actual butterflies flying in the air” she says. “Just the decadence of the 80’s was incredible, particularly in New York, but I have no need for those things now.”
Returning to Australia permanently in 1993 after marrying “the only New Yorker who wanted to leave New York”, Naomi has set about building a property empire. Her specialty is buying commercial properties, which are in need of some TLC.
She now divides her time between her Melbourne home and a minimalist Adelaide penthouse, scattered with unique contemporary design furniture – another of her passions.
“To me a sexy property is not one that is complete bit where you can add value,” she says.
While coy about the extent of her portfolio, in the past two years she has focused on the Adelaide market, buying the Henry Bucks and Rundle Arcade buildings and establishing the Raw retail chain – Raw Sugar, a confectionary shop, and Raw Space, a novelty store that appeals to her quirky personality.
The Raw shops are solely about supplying something exclusive, from personalised sweets to the only available Dr Seuss toys in the country.
“I would say coming back to Australia was one of the toughest times of my life.” She says. “I was taken as a female rather than a successful individual. When I went for job interviews I was asked, ‘When are you going to have a baby’ or ‘What does you husband do?”
She describes this period as the catalyst for her career change form finance to property. It also was a culture shock for a woman who, despite being diagnosed with dyslexia, single-handedly worked her way up the international corporate ladder. At just 18 she became the youngest account executive in the history of Young & Rubican’s London office. After a 30-month stint there she enjoyed 15 years as a successful New York investment banker.
“I had big dreams. Nothing was or is unattainable in my mind,” she says. “I don’t know what the impact of my father’s death (he died of a heart attack when she was a teenager) caused but it definitely catapults you into another realm of responsibility and realism and drives you to question the world around you at a much younger age.”
While Naomi has reaped an enviable financial position from her ambitions, she also has experienced what it is like to lose it all. “In the crash of 1987 I was wiped out in a matter of hours,” she says. “I am talking serious money; it was just mind-boggling. In a sense I am not as monetarily wealthy as I was then, but maybe I don’t have the need.”
The sum of her current wealth is unknown and although she is a self-made millionaire, her Sydney apartment king uncle, Harry Triguboff, graced the pages of the BRW top 200 rich list with a personal fortune of $1.6 billion.
“Money does not care who owns it and, quite honestly, I don’t care less how much I am worth; I don’t even balance a cheque book.” She says.
“I do believe I have been given a gift that I can make money. The banks so heavily dominate the markets so, in the property sphere, by understanding the mentality of the banks their world is your oyster – nothing can hold you back.”
Article – Tourism News:
The World Around
January 2004
p. 9
RAW
When retail innovator Naomi Triguboff Travers decided to open an ‘old fashioned lolly shop’ in the heart of Adelaide’s retail strip, she was planning more than a pick and serve sweet bar – she was setting up the happiest shop in the city. Raw Sugar is located just off Rundle Mall in Rundle Arcade – recently transformed by Travers and now home to an eclectic mix of retail outlets reflecting the RAW theme. Raw Sugar features hand made gourmet sweets and fun toys for kids and grown-ups and is a fantasy land of bright colours, delicious smells and tasty treats. The young, friendly staff provide daily demonstrations, stretching and cutting the warm toffee mixture into lollies of all colours and flavours. There are hundreds of flavours and varieties to choose from including fruit salad, creamy toffees, crisp peppermints, giant lollipops and boxes of lollies, making excellent gifts. Raw Sugar’s motto is “eat sweets, be happy”.
Article – Adelaide matters:
King of Crimson
Issue 30
October 2002
p. 6
Roaring about design
The new Raw Space is a “purist design store”, says its chief buyer, owner and landlord, Naomi Triguboff Travers. Baskets made of recycled telephone wires from South Africa, Paul Smith hologram cufflinks, Italian olive oil soaps, new wave English designer Tom Dixon’s lights, a plastic igloo, and jewellery made with glad beads cut from old Coca-Cola bottles, Naomi has searches here and overseas for items that have only one thing in common: “strong design elements”. “I absolutely adore design, and want it to evolve into an important design centre in Adelaide,” says Naomi, who is gradually transforming Rundle Arcade, under the Gawler Place Arcade. Raw Space is a sister store in the arcade to the first Raw, a café/juice bar opened last year. Naomi says she wants to keep her prices down “to make these design pieces accessible to people,” and to move stock to create room for new items that she is constantly sourcing. She expects Raw Space to double its size soon. Open Monday-Saturday from 10.30am.
Article – Adelaide matters:
High Riser
Issue 24
April 2002
p. 8-9
An Adelaide banker warned Naomi Triguboff Travers against her interview with adelaide matters. It would be seen in certain circles as an act of boldness, a flashy statement that might “work against me”. Despite the advice and insisting she is media shy, she decided to talk anyway. “The only reason I’m doing this with you is to let Adelaide know that it’s a really fantastic town and there is so much opportunity here,” she says.
For a woman with a pedigree in Sydney property investment and development, and her own career as a successful investment banker specialising in property – first in Manhattan and then Melbourne – it has taken her no time at all to take a set against Adelaide City Council. “I find the current council rather inept,” she begins, during an interview last month on one of her regular business trips to Adelaide.
“The Lord Mayor is concentrating too much on overseas investors rather than exploring what’s in his backyard. I’ve had several meetings with him to explore the avenues of joining forces and I get no response whatsoever. Council keeps saying they want to do things with private enterprise, however, I’ve approached them on a number of different issues regarding joint venturing, particularly on car parks, because the city needs affordable parking, and yet they’re uninterested. Some terrific people who were so dedicated to the city have been let go… in one fell swoop.”
With a name that opens doors in her hometown Sydney and a reputation in Melbourne for smart investments in city property, Naomi has quickly had to size up Adelaide and its players, the networks, the politics and the personal agendas.
“Adelaide is a very challenging place. When I came here I knew nothing. It’s been a very quick education. Its just a mater of keeping your eyes and ears open, working out who’s to be trusted, who’s not to be trusted. I can basically smell a deal. That’s how I’ve been brought up. I think Adelaide has tremendous potential – I actually classify Adelaide as virgin territory.”
In just over two years, Naomi has acquired the Colonial Mutual or Henry Buck’s building, on North Tce; the 72-year leasehold on the city council’s Gawler Place car park (leased back to the city council to manage) which has Rundle Arcade underneath; and she has just started building herself a rooftop city apartment with a North Tce address. “I was really looking for investment opportunities, and it was the (Gawler Place) car park that attracted me. Car parks are low maintenance, easy to manage and the fact that it was being run by the city (council) was appealing.”
Born and raised in Sydney, Naomi is a member of the Triguboff family, headed by her high-profile uncle, the billionaire Harry Triguboff, of Meriton, the largest private residential developer in Australia, with more than 3000 units currently being constructed. “I grew up on construction sites, property is very much in my blood; however I do things totally separate from my family. Perhaps the edge I have today, is because of that training.”
Naomi is passionate about art and studied for a fine arts degree before choosing advertising as a career and steering clear of the family business. She went to London as an account executive with Young & Rubicam before ending up in New York City. By chance or natural selection, “the first people I met in New York were in property”.
“It felt exactly where I should be, so I slipped into property in New York and did that for 15 years, sat on three boards of large property companies and then married probably the only New Yorker who didn’t want to live in New York. Honestly, what rotten luck but it wasn’t grounds for divorce. Here you are, madly in love, just married and you come to Australia on your honeymoon and he says who wants to live in New York? I do!
“Because I didn’t want to be under my family’s thumb, in a sense, with all the good intentions of family, they tend to watch over you a bit much, so we chose Melbourne but I do have a home in Sydney.”
On the 50 visits she estimates she has made to Adelaide in about two years, her home here has been the Radisson Playford. “I want a place of my own so there is more a sense of home. It also shows my commitment to the town. That’s also important for my employees. I don’t want them to think I only flit in and out. There’s that sense of wanting to be a part of the community. I can invite people to my home.” She lives in Toorak in Melbourne, on the fringe of the CDB, but in Adelaide, her address has to be dead centre. “After 15 years in Manhattan, the location is fantastic. The suburbs are dead. That’s family life out there. The city’s a happening place and it will only get better.”
Former Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith – now Adelaide MP – says Naomi is a “breath of fresh air”, to Adelaide generally and the male-dominated city commercial property sector specifically. “I like her for being up-front, she’s so straightforward to deal with. She’s smart and insightful but what I like most about her is her creative edge. What’s she’s doing with Rundle Arcade…. She’s really starting to turn it around,” Ms Lomax-Smith says.
Naomi describes herself as a “AAA-type personality – which is a very high achiever, fast paced, always having about 20 transactions on the go”. She’s also media shy; there have been only two past references to her in any Australian newspaper. This is the first interview she has given to a journalist. She sais several times: “There is so much opportunity here” But “what I have found, though, is that a number of people seem to have given up or they allow newcomers to take control of bringing excitement to the city, when it’s all here at your fingertips”. Rundle Arcade had six bankrupted tenancies after the relocation of David Jones and post-GST, and Naomi is gradually restocking it with her own businesses; the first is Raw Juice Bar & Café. She wants new food outlets and retail like no other in Adelaide and has become an owner-operator rather than risk the poaching of tenants that she has seen around Rundle Mall. “On the day we opened Raw, not only did we have other landlords and other property owners taking photographs, we also had three franchising offers.
“What’s disappointed me with the new David Jones and the surrounding retailers is that it was just simple cannibalism of Rundle Mall. They’re not adding anything new to the city. The rental agents obviously can’t be bothered and the landlords look for the easy way out – just steal from someone else’s centre. It’s such a negative way of doing business.” After Raw, she plans to open a “groovy gift shop” and a lolly shop, where confectionery is made by hand in-store, to an old European recipe.
