The McCloy Philosophy… ENRICHING LIVES AND COMMUNITIES
JEFF MCCLOY
WORDS LIANE MORRIS YOU WOULD HAVE TO BE LIVING UNDER A ROCK IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD OF JEFF MCCLOY AND HIS FAMILY BUSINESS, THE MCCLOY GROUP. AND WHILST CONTROVERSY HAS FOLLOWED HIM THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, HIS PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY, GENEROSITY AND PASSIONATE DESIRE TO CREATE STRONG COMMUNITIES BENEFIT MANY THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE AND IS SOMETHING HE CAN JUSTIFIABLY BE PROUD OF. Life for Jeff McCloy began in a very humble way in a tiny cottage in Belmont. He still remembers using newspaper in the outside lavatory and the horse leading the bread van for bread deliveries. There was always food on the table, though, and young Jeff grew up wanting to be a dentist, which he laughs about now. His grandfather and father were both builders who rode the waves of boom and bust as they tried to provide for their families. When Jeff was still in primary school, his father experienced a significant downturn in his fortunes, and Jeff believes that this experience helped shape his life. "When your dad goes broke, and you're just a little kid, it shapes who you become. You never want to go through that if you can help it.
And you certainly don't want your family to go through it," says Jeff. There's a sense that the elder McCloy, Jeff's father Don, was keen to have Jeff join the family business right from the start, but the young man needed to go off and be his own person. His first year at the University of Newcastle was spent playing rugby and snooker. He did not apply himself to his studies in Civil Engineering until after he'd had "the talk" with his parents, after which he returned to university, put his head down and finished his degree successfully. There followed a series of jobs in Sydney, which he loved, including stints at Lend Lease and the Public Works Department and working on the MLC Centre. During this time, he developed his craft and his business acumen. His father, however, still had ideas for Jeff to join him, and in the late '70s, Jeff promised to give it a go for 12 months. This move proved to be highly successful and certainly went way beyond 12 months. They won the tender to build the John Hunter Hospital, and to this day, it is still one of the things that Jeff is most proud of. "Business-wise, the John Hunter Hospital construction was an amazing achievement," said Jeff. "We came in one year ahead of schedule, and I'm still proud of it."
The younger McCloy set about ensuring that the family business would never go broke. For a short while, the business moved into the Sydney market but sustained losses. This led to a return to the Hunter region and a pivot away from construction to property development and diversification. The Jewells Tavern and shopping centre was their first commercial development, followed quickly by the Belmont North subdivision. The future of the McCloy Group was set. Today, the business has three main areas of focus. First, there are over 25 residential communities under the McCloy name, six employment centres and four retirement living complexes. Jeff's core philosophy of living life well, being connected to the community and giving back to society is at the heart of each of these areas of focus. The residential communities are branded Masterplanned for Living and reflect Jeff's passion for creating communities that people love to live in, with uncompromising quality and environments that feature public art, landscaped parklands, playgrounds and open spaces. The employment centres are branded Designed for Productivity. They are all about Continued next page ▶ HUNTER HOMES SPECIAL FEATURE • intouch 43
