Enduring Partners

PARTNERSHIPS THAT LAST A LIFETIME

The one thing we have all learnt at JLF over the past 40 years is that we wouldn’t be where we are now without forming so many meaningful partnerships along the way.

These partners they have become very much a part of the fabric of JLF and are instrumental in not only our success, but more importantly that of our clients.

Notable partnerships that simply can’t got without acknowledgement are KPMG Brisbane, our external accountants for two decades; National Australia Bank, who has been JLF’s biggest lender; and of course, companies like Insignia Homes, Callaway Homes, Winslow Constructions, Little Real Estate Group and Mitchell Brandtman, with which we have had longstanding relationships over the past 40 years.

From those who were alongside John before the company even began, to those who have worked side by side with him along the way, we pay tribute to our business partners who chose to come on the JLF journey with us.

MANAGING DIRECTOR MELTHORN PTY LTD

Paul Thynne remembers well the day he dropped John Fitzgerald off on the edge of Melbourne as he set out to hitchhike to Queensland in search of a new life.

The pair had been friends since primary school, their families living a few streets apart.

“When we were about Grade 5 or 6, John’s father died and he and his two brothers were later sent to boarding school in Ballarat while their mum looked after their twin sisters, who were still toddlers,” Paul recalled.

While their contact was then limited to school holiday catch-ups, the two remained good friends.

“John got into martial arts, and he was a tough little kid,” he said.

“When he was 16, he took off for the Gold Coast. His brother and I dropped him off in the northern outskirts of Melbourne as he prepared to hitchhike north on the Hume Highway.”

John got a job in real estate in Miami on the Gold Coast, and in 1996 when Paul moved to Queensland, they reconnected and their long friendship continued.

By then, John had established his own business and two years later, Paul joined JLF Corporation as general manager, before establishing his own residential property development company in 2001.

Melthorn Pty Ltd produces land estates and housing targeted at the property investment market.

For the past 20 years, Paul has also been the managing director of Custodian House & Garden Care, which helps interstate investors with the maintenance and upkeep of their assets.

He said his friendship with John has stood the test of time because although they have moved in different directions it remained constant and they were able to successfully blend their business relationship with their friendship.

“I have really valued John’s mentorship. He is loyal, innovative and a strong leader who is always happy to share his knowledge,” Paul said.

“He genuinely likes to help others succeed.”

GARY DEANE INVESTMENTS

It always had the makings of a solid professional partnership but the relationship between Gary Deane and John Fitzgerald has evolved into so much more over the past three decades.

The pair first came together on a development in Brisbane’s Daisy Hill in 1992 bringing different, but complementary, skills to the project and have since forged a lasting bond based on trust and mutual respect.

“We’re quite, quite different,” Gary explained.

“John’s the ever-optimistic salesman with marketing flair and vision, and my background is engineering, contracting, and resolving day to day dramas.

“John had a contractor working for him on the Kimberley Forest project in Daisy Hill who kept letting him down and someone said: ‘You should speak to Gary Deane, he’s four or five years into a major enterprise running a business and he doesn’t let people down’.

“That was the start, he was a client of mine and I was his contractor there. I was 42 and he was 29.”

Gary had recently bought the contracting business and both men were determined to make their mark in property development.

He also recognised the value of forming good relationships directly with clients in order to secure their long-term business and bypass the usual tendering hurdles.

“I got as close to John as I could while we were working on that project and we met on site regularly,” Gary said.

“That was new to him because he had always dealt with the consulting engineers before and he was just starting out.

“I remember him saying ‘I want to learn from you as much as I can’, because at that stage we had 200 people working for us and quite a big presence in the development industry.

“We started out as client and principal and there was a little bit of mutual mentoring going on in the early days.”

The pair went on to complete dozens of successful projects together and became partners in a major development on the Gold Coast around 1999-2000.

Most of their work has been confined to South East Queensland, particularly on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane, although there has been the occasional project interstate.

They’ve experienced the highs and lows of their respective personal and professional lives over the past 30 years and have always been there when one or the other needed a leg up.

“When I was short of work John brought work forward to help,” Gary continued.

“And when John had a cash flow issue, we didn’t put the pressure on, we continued the work knowing he would do the right thing in the end.

“Those relationships are fairly rare, to have that much commercial trust in people.”

Gary has great admiration for John’s sense of purpose, his determination to do the right thing by those who do the right thing by him, and his enormous commitment to children and their welfare.

“John really, really is very kids focused,” he said.

“Some people see him as this ‘Gold Coast marketer’ but when you skim off that layer, he has this absolute, unequivocal love of children – his own obviously – but also kids generally.”

Gary added that John is also fiercely loyal to his friends and passionate about creating a worthwhile legacy – something he learned from one of his earliest mentors, Michael Hershon.

“The issue of legacy has been an underlying theme of John’s for a long, long time and he values his relationships extremely highly,” he said.

“I would say they are John’s three most outstanding characteristics: Loyalty, legacy and an endless supply of optimism.” “The company has always been terrific to work with, exuding great professionalism, work ethics and the integral importance of building trust in relationships.”

Rob Portaro, Luxton Homes

“We have had the pleasure to work with John and his team for over 20 years to build the new homes for their clients. We have always admired their customer focus to achieve wealth creation for them and is testament with so many repeat customers.”

Craig & Paul Millson, Orbit Homes

“What you will learn from John Fitzgerald is how his clients have been building wealth over time using his ‘7 Steps to Wealth’ strategy. We are very excited and look forward to seeing our own clients’ portfolios grow, thanks to an education method that simply works.”

Robert Green, Ray White Aspley