When he was a top-floor tenant in the AMP Building, Matt Howe would urge his landlord Paul Stamatellis to stop charging him rent and sell him the building. That happy day arrived in 2014. Photo: John Thistleton.
Goulburn’s magnificent AMP building will open to the general public on Saturday morning, 11 April as the heritage city begins a month-long celebration of its exceptional architecture.
In the Italian Renaissance style, with slim pink bricks imitating the old Roman style and specifically made by Gulson Brickworks of Goulburn, the 1928 building teems with anecdotes from owners and tenants.
About 40 years ago, fresh into her real estate career, Carol James strolled along the footpath outside the three-storey building and asked jeweller Ange Zantis: “Did you know this is for sale? They only want $250,000.”
Buying the premises from the AMP, Ange swiftly removed the ‘for sale’ sign from the window according to the prestigious building’s current owner, Matt Howe, who bought it in 2014 from the Stamatellis and Waugh families of Goulburn. They had bought it from Ange.
Federal members John Sharp, Alby Schultz and Angus Taylor were previous tenants. In Matt’s ground-floor office a black cable once descended from the ceiling to Angus’ desk connecting a phone with a direct line to then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Having a close contact to senior decision-makers later loomed like a lottery for Matt, an importer and son of entrepreneur Dick Howe who cracked the Chinese clothing market in the 1970s.
As COVID-19 swept the world Matt wanted his main tenant and senior government minister Angus Taylor to get him in front of then-Health Minister Greg Hunt for a meeting. Because Matt could have solved Australia’s dire need for personal protection equipment. That proved a leap too far. He was never given the opportunity to pitch his services.
“Yet I was able to supply the United Kingdom Government 10 million coveralls,” he said. “It was my biggest deal, a $200 million deal after a lot of my factories in China pivoted from clothing to PPE.”
Before he bought the three-storey AMP building, a previous tenant had covered exquisite terrazzo marble tiles with carpet along a ground-floor hallway and stairs.
The landmark AMP building’s owner Matt Howe says this photo was likely taken to record insurance agents and executives in the courtyard to mark the building’s opening. Matt Howe/ANU archive.
Horrified after uncovering the tasteless blunder, Matt engaged a specialist from Sydney who paid Eastern European artisans to repair the damage and restore the tiles. The project cost more than $80,000.
“Back in the day I don’t think people cared, did they?” Matt said. “I honestly think when they did all those things they thought they were modernising the building. And yet now we look and say, ‘How could you have done such a thing?’”
Intriguing, polished parquetry flooring, stylish window frames and ornate timber carvings on the main counter create a prestigious space on the ground floor that people find irresistible.
Matt smiled recounting boutique jeweller Lucy Fife, who once helped fabulously rich people select their diamonds in Mondial’s in the Queen Victoria Building and in Martin Place, Sydney, plead for a lease in the AMP to establish her own showrooms.
“I want to open my shop here and will not open it anywhere else,” Lucy had said after returning to her hometown. She has since extended her Lucy In the Sky showrooms on the ground floor and says the building is the most beautiful one in Goulburn.
Other tenants include architectural firm Croker Design Studio, Jigsaw Accounting who sublets to Jigsaw Plan Management, Warrington Scott Financial Services, and boutique law firm Hume Legal as well as Matt’s business China Advantage.
Matt’s favourite architectural feature is the main ground floor space which has an abundance of natural light all day and opens on to a large courtyard.
“I love being in this space,” he said. “I had my wife’s birthday party here, we had a jukebox, the courtyard opened up. It’s just a great space. We also had a big tenant’s Christmas party in here.
“If I open that (front) door we get people coming in off the main street and wandering around,” he said. “I reckon there would not be a day goes past that I don’t see someone taking a photo from across the street. I never used to see that but it is happening regularly now.”
Passersby stop regularly to photograph their favourite Goulburn edifice, the three-storey AMP building. Photo: John Thistleton.
The AMP building will open at 10 am on 11 April. Also on that day Goulburn Mulwaree Council’s Heritage Advisory Committee will be at the Rotary Markets opposite the Court House, handing out information on self-guided tours of the numerous grand homes designed by Edmund Manfred, the heritage city’s most renowned architect.
Other attractions registered for the heritage celebrations include Goulburn’s pioneer cemeteries, Gallery on Track arts and crafts centre, The Goulburn Club, Waterworks Museum, Goulburn Historic Waterworks, Rocky Hill War Memorial Museum, Goulburn Performing Arts Centre and Garroorigang homestead.
The AMP building at 189 Auburn Street, Goulburn, will open at 10 am on 11 April.
