Patrick Abolakian is new but joins the best of the Old School village operators

Meeting Patrick Abolakian last week for a tour of his just-opened private aged care village was like stepping back 20 years to when strong, big thinking and proud women and men led the growth and innovation of the retirement village sector. 

For more than a decade, big corporate and big Not For Profits have dominated the village sector, with mergers, acquisitions and the relentless march of corporate consolidation. Balance sheets have ballooned, but something else has quietly disappeared – the charismatic, entrepreneurial developer who built this industry from the ground up. 

Think Mavis Gannon, Loretta Byers, Chiou See Anderson, Zig and Peter Inge, Chas Jacobsen, Tony Baldwin, the Knowles brothers, Bill McLurg. They all knew every corner of every village and were seeking to improve everything they designed. 

Now, add another name to that list: Patrick Abolakian. 

Patrick isn’t a product of the corporate machine. He’s a proud second-generation developer, part of the Hyecorp family business that’s spent 30 years shaping Sydney’s Lower North Shore. And with Hyegrove Willoughby, their first retirement village – part of the ambitious Heart of Willoughby masterplan – Patrick has delivered something that feels refreshingly “old school.” 

No shortcuts. No token gestures. And, as he insists, “no upgrades,” meaning he has specified everything to be in perfect market condition in 20 years’ time because he and the family will be operating Hyegrove for decades to come. 

The result: Hyegrove is the most impressive new village that Ian, Chris and I have toured – ever. 

It is 111 apartments plus 42 care suites which offer both funded and fee-for-service care, all operating under the Retirement Village Act. In addition, there are retail, medical suites, full wellness facilities, plus the rebuilt Club Willoughby (RSL) on the adjacent site. 

Hyecorp partnered with Chanje Partners’ Cameron Kirby and Jen Berryman to weave care into the village DNA. They have a waitlist for the care suites before opening in 2026. 

But what sets Patrick apart is something rarer: that developer-as-custodian mindset. He knows every resident. He’s met their families. He cares – genuinely – about the lives being lived in the homes he’s created 

In Patrick’s world, residents aren’t customers. They’re family. And in a sector obsessed with scale and systems, that’s exactly the kind of leadership we need more of. 

In this issue of The SOURCE, we also cover the extraordinary sales being achieved by Paul Browne and Byron Cannon (pictured far right) at their Amberfield village in Canberra. Paul and Byron have the same customer and quality ethos resulting in their ‘local brand’ generating $79 million over 44 sales written in last 30 days. 

Paul Singer (pictured) is cut from the same cloth, on site at his three villages in development at 6am every morning – for 20-plus years. (His Mount Gilead village is 450 homes with another 300 to come). 

As prices rise, demand accelerates, and the sector chases growth, Hyegrove is a timely reminder that the old ways – pride in product, care for community, and personal accountability – still work. 

The future of retirement living might not always be about what’s new. We believe it’s about remembering what made it great in the first place.