As long-standing clients of the McKee racing stables, Barry and Diane Rissetto understand more than most about the gamble and the luck involved in backing winners on the racetrack – and in the property sector.
Having sold their Underground Fashions business just before the 1987 sharemarket crash, the couple has spent the past three decades investing in commercial and industrial property through their company Norak Properties.
A food warehouse complex leased to Ceres Organics in Mt Wellington was one of the first of its type to gain a five Green Star rating. Built on a brownfield site, the 5500sq m structure features numerous sustainable design features ranging from mixed mode natural ventilation and exposed thermal mass in the office to stack ventilation and LED lighting in the warehouse.
Norak also developed a giant 21,800sq m warehouse leased to Fonterra at the port of Timaru. It had a rateable value of $15.4m.
The Rissettos’ most successful racehorse in recent times is the speedy mare O'Marilyn, which cost $130,000 as a yearling and earned $350,000 on the track before being sold to Australian interests. A yearling colt from O’Marilyn by Fastnet fetched the top lot of $A1.8m at the Inglis Australia Easter sale in Sydney this year.