Ingham chicken heiress Jessica Ingham knew from an early age she wanted a slice of Woolloomooloo’s iconic Finger Wharf on the edge of Sydney’s CBD.
“Ever since I was a teenager driving past there I always thought ‘I want to live there’,” Ms Ingham told AFR Weekend.
Jessica Ingham on the Finger Wharf where her children play. Instagram
Seven years after landing a luxury three-bedroom apartment in the iconic structure – which juts into Sydney Harbour between the Royal Botanic Garden and Garden Island naval base – Ms Ingham has deemed now as the time right to leave.
The property has hit Sydney’s prestige apartment market with a $15 million price guide, via Ray White Double Bay’s Di Wilson.
A self-confessed “apartment person”, Ms Ingham is selling so her two children can grow up with more space.
“We want a house with a backyard and a swimming pool, something kid-friendly, where they can run around,” she said. “We want somewhere so we can have family barbecues and birthday parties and all of that.”
The view from Jessica Ingham’s Finger Wharf apartment living room.  
Such gatherings will no doubt include well-heeled members of Sydney’s extended Ingham clan. Jess is the granddaughter of the late chicken and thoroughbred racing billionaire Jack Ingham, who, with his brother Bob, helmed family business Inghams Enterprises. In 2013, the family sold the country’s largest chicken producer to private equity firm TPG in a deal valued at $1 billion.
While Ms Ingham was originally drawn to the buzz of restaurants and proximity to the city, the socialite says the former wool-exporting site-turned luxury apartment and restaurant strip has proven to be a tight-knit community.
Ms Ingham, who has two young children with husband Roger Zraika (son Nemer, 10 months, and daughter Mimi, seven), said the latter had been growing up playing on the timber-piled wharf.
“She’s always ridden her bike and scooter down the wharves. The whole wharf becomes a little community. Everyone knows each other. You’re all friends with everyone – and everyone knows my daughter.”
That community includes actor Russell Crowe and Sydney radio veteran John Laws, who paid $14.35 million and $15 million, respectively, to buy into wharf residences in 2003 and 2004.
If Ms Ingham’s $15 million apartment guide is exceeded, it will take the crown as the most expensive sale in the Lang Walker-developed former industrial wharf conversion, where dwellings rarely trade.
The apartment in the northern tip of the Finger Wharf conversion.  
The heiress says she will miss living within metres of her favourite culinary haunts – “Otto and China Doll, of course” – as well as walking to the city via the Royal Botanical Garden.
“You can see the city buildings, the art gallery, all the boats that come by and the boats that are moored,” she said. “I’m going to miss everything: my neighbours, the view, the convenience.
Along with two parking spots, the three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment comes with a concierge service that Ms Ingham likens to “having your own EA”.
The apartment also features herringbone oak floors, wall-to-wall glass, a gourmet kitchen with walk-in pantry and a sauna in the main bathroom. The property last traded for just over $6 million.
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