This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
A KEY Southport corner development site within the precinct’s Priority Development Area has changed hands for $2.2 million.
The 1,340sqm site at 9-11 High Street, on the corner of Lawson Street, was offered with wide development potential for office, hotel, residential or retail use and no height restriction.
Amir Mian of Prestige Property Agents negotiated the sale of the property after it went to auction.
Currently a vacant cleared site, it is earmarked to become another landmark project within the central Gold Coast district. Its location in Precinct 1 – Central Business District within the Southport PDA required development to be “high-rise to promote CBD intensity”, “increase commercial office space to accommodate a range of business activity” and “provide high-residential densities”.
Around 140 development applications for Southport sites were submitted to Gold Coast Council over the 2017 financial year.
These included plans for Imperial Square by Azzura, which would feature a 108-level tower amongst its three structures that might be the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere.
The development would sit atop a six-level podium with 50,000sqm of space for a range of education, public space, hospitality and retail uses.
Also among the applications were the multi-tower Star of the Sea project at Marine Parade, which has received preliminary approval; and Nerang St Pty Ltd’s eight-structure project on the former Gold Coast Hospital site is early in its construction phase.
Developers are hoping to capitalise on the economic and tourism momentum generated by the lead-up to and the Commonwealth Games themselves in April next year.
Southport is home to the Commonwealth Games Village that will accommodate athletes during the event, which will be used as low-cost housing afterwards.
Not all projects in the precinct have proved to be a rubber-stamp money-maker for developers. Cienna, the Australian arm of Lee Kim Tah’s Singaporean development group, withdrew their application for twin towers of 88 and 38 levels at a 4,440sqm vacant site with frontages with Nerang, Young and Garden Streets.
However, the group still holds hope of selling on the site for more than $40 million, after acquiring it for $7 million about 13 years ago.
Australian Property Journal
