This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
MELBOURNE developer Tim Gurner is making his first foray into the Gold Coast market, planning a $600 million mixed-use and resort project for a 1.3-hectare site overlooking Budds Beach at Surfers Paradise.
The site was previously owned by Ralan and earmarked for its Sapphire project before the developer’s collapse 18 months ago with more than $560 million of debts.
Its main finance partner, investment house Wingate sought to sell off the site and has now entered into a joint venture agreement with Gurner.
While the site is permitted for 999 apartments over 90 levels without a height limit, Gurner will redesign the plans to deliver a multi-tower precinct, developer over multiple stages, with high-end residential, hotel, retail and hospitality and potentially build to rent.
The new scheme will see a reduction of apartments to between 500 and 600 offerings.
Gurner is seeking design competition submissions from architecture firms to and is aiming for town planning to be submitted in the next eight to 12 weeks with a public launch later this year.
This will be Gurner’s second large-scale Queensland project after completing the 1,000-apartment, $500 million FV project on the Brisbane city fringe in 2019.
It also announced a $60 million hotel and residences project in Port Douglas late last year.
Gurner has anticipated a growing number of distressed assets hitting the market, and most recently it added to its interests in Melbourne’s St Kilda with the acquisition of a former nightclub site that will be used for a new short and long-stay accommodation project. The site is a short distance from the developer’s first project in the suburb, the ultra-lux Saint Moritz, which has set records for Melbourne penthouse sales.
The Budds Beach site neighbours the site of Ralan’s former Ruby project, which was set to have 360 rooms on completion. It was picked up by prominent hotel owner Jerry Schwartz in late 2019 for $43 million.
Gurner attracted to Gold Coast market strength
The Gold Coast property market witnessed strong price growth through 2020, fuelled in part by the growing urge from Australians to seek a sea change during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gold Coast’s vacancy rates have sharpened from 10% in May to just 0.9%, according to the Real Estate Institute of Queensland.
“We have been looking at the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast for a considerable amount of time, but we wanted to find a site that would allow us to do something really special and not just ‘another tower’ on the Gold Coast,” Gurner said.
“I believe the Gold Coast is about to have its largest market run in history as Australians realise just how spectacular our eastern seaboard coastline is, and are more motivated than ever before to invest and live in a coastal destination.
“With a site like this we have the flexibility to either stage the project if we need to, however if the market appetite is there we can launch multiple products at the same time to cater for different demands and deliver it all in one hit.”
Mark Harrison, managing director of property at Wingate – which has funded more than $12 billion of property over the past decade – said that not only is the Gold Coast an attractive holiday destination but more Australians are now choosing it as their principal place of residence.
“We believe this project will launch at the right time to capitalise on this momentum and deliver supply across a number of different product classes,” he said.
