This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
DEVELOPER Tim Gurner has submitted plans for his largest project to date, a $1.25 billion luxury apartment, hotel and hospitality precinct on the Gold Coast’s Budds Beach with four towers rising up to 57 storeys.
Spanning 1.3 hectares, the revised plans for La Pelago along include towers ranging from 29 levels upwards, with 95 to 350 apartments, 200 five-star hotel keys, over 12,000 sqm of resident and hotel amenity and over 5,500 sqm of international hospitality and retail.
There will also be a 2,000 sqm private health and wellness club.
Architecturally designed by Warren and Mahoney and with landscaping by international firm SWA, La Pelago will centralises on a “private island” theme. Each of its buildings is surrounded by over 9,000 sqm of amenity, tropical landscaping and pool-side water retreats, creating four private “islands”.
The site was previously permitted for 999 apartments over 90 levels and without a height limit. It had been owned by Ralan and earmarked for its Sapphire project before the developer’s collapse two years ago with more than $560 million of debts. Its main finance partner, investment house Wingate sought to sell off the site and is now a joint venture partner with Gurner.
Gurner is targeting the local owner-occupier market, with a mix of generous two and three-bedroom floorplans. The Gold Coast is leading the country top nationally for internal migration and the demand from owner occupiers has seen supply hit a seven-year low.
Two of the towers will face directly over Budds Beach and the Nerang River, offering sea and water views, with the other towers designed to maximise northern aspects and sunset views.
Gurner is talking up the development as a “new world experience for a beachside precinct that will be unlike anything ever attempted in Australia before, with an international hotel name that will be a new entrant to the Australian market”, adding that the group is “well progressed with an international EOI process with some of the world’s best five-star hotel brands”.
Gurner has taken on larger sites for luxury projects over the past several year, including Melbourne projects St Moritz in St Kilda and Victoria & Vine, and FV in Brisbane.
“La Pelago is the next evolution in this journey. We believe Budds Beach is the next frontier of luxury on the Coast and we are creating a $1.25 billion precinct that will enable us to be at the forefront of this transformation,” Gurner said.
“When designing the project it was really about me dreaming about where we all want to be right now and for me that is a hot and sunny luxury private island. Something that offers sun, pools, amazing service, luxury amenities and residences – something right now you cannot get in Australia.”
Warren and Mahoney has designed each of the building to “express its own iconic architectural aesthetic, drawing on world-renowned resort buildings of Dubai, Singapore and Miami,” Warren and Mahoney design principal, Barrington Gohns said.
Chuck McDaniel, managing principal at SWA Group said, “Vibrant colours, fragrant aromas and unique plant species will populate the landscape in a memorable display of the flora of this unique biome of Australia”.
In May, Gurner added a 1.3 hectare site in Melbourne’s eastern city fringe suburb of Richmond to its fast-growing portfolio. Currently the site of Harry the Hirer’s warehouse, the industrial block will make way for an $800 million mixed use project. That followed Gurner striking a deal with Qualitas and site owner Newmark Capital for a $1.4 billion redevelopment of the Jam Factory retail and cinema complex in the close-by suburb of South Yarra.
