Founder Profile · Central Apartment Group
Sid Knell
Founder & CEO — Central Apartment Group · Prime Group Australasia · Central Development Corporation
Thirty five years ago, a Duntroon-trained officer swapped one kind of service for another. Today his regionally built hospitality group operates 25 properties across the country, and he still runs it the way he was trained to: plan long, back your people, and never ask more of the team than you'd give yourself.
Read his story ↓From Duntroon to the Boardroom
Before real estate, there was the Army. Sid trained as an officer at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, and went on to serve for 15 years. It's where he learned to lead under pressure, plan for the long game, and never ask a team to do something he wouldn't do himself. Those instincts never left him, they just found a new uniform.
When Sid moved into property, he brought that same discipline with him, founding the first Prime Group company in 1989 to deliver investment housing, then steadily expanding into the accommodation and development business that carries his name today.
A Family Business, Built Regionally
Central Apartment Group wasn't built out of a boardroom in a capital city. Sid and his wife Alison started the business together, and its growth has always leaned into the regions other operators overlook: Rockhampton, Gladstone, Emerald, Mackay, Town of 1770. Today the group operates 4 star, fully self contained apartment hotels stretching from Queensland through to New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria and Western Australia, with more than 26 properties developed under Sid's leadership across 15 destinations.
It's a philosophy Sid still talks about the same way after twenty years:
"Reaching 20 years is a proud moment for our entire team."
Still Building
Central Apartment Group marked its 20th anniversary heading into 2026, off the back of a year of expansion across Queensland and Victoria, and Sid isn't slowing down. Alongside the accommodation business, Central Development Corporation now drives residential and commercial projects with the same regional, community first thinking that built the original group, backed by a leadership team Sid has spent two decades assembling.
From a Duntroon graduate to the founder of a national hospitality and development group, Sid's story is really one of consistency: show up, back your regions, build for the long term.
