Delstrat walking away from tower
WA COMPANY Delstrat – which has been planning a debut Gold Coast project with a Southport apartment tower – is retreating to home base and has put the tower site on the market.
The Perth group has owned land on the corner of Queen and Bauer streets for 14 years and two years ago gained approval for a 14-level tower.
The 1593sq m L-shaped site, west of the Meriton group’s Brighton on Broadwater community, has been put on the market at $6.5 million.
It comes with development approval for a tower tentatively tagged Bauer Place and with 67 one, two and three-bedroom apartments.
Russell Barker, principal of First National Southport, said Delstrat had a major housing business in WA.
“The market there is picking up and they have 200 or more homes under way,” he said. “They want to keep their focus on WA and, at the end of the day, the Southport project could prove a distraction.”
Mr Barker said that since Delstrat had indicated it would sell the Southport site, two serious contenders had emerged.
Delstrat bought its two-title holding for $1.35 million in 2003 and intended building a seven-level project with 14 luxury apartments.
That plan was shelved when the GFC hit the luxury property market.
Post-GFC, and in the wake of the advent of the light-rail system emerging on the site’s doorstep, Delstrat engaged Southport architects Burling Brown to design a taller tower with higher density.
The revised plan, approved in July 2015, includes a gymnasium, manager’s office, and ground-floor and basement parking for 89 cars.
Delstrat’s WA housing brands are Broadway, Seacrest, Ideal, and Affordable Living and the group is Perth’s major builder of two-level luxury properties.
Delstrat also has earthmoving and construction arms and its projects have taken in Perth International Airport, LNG storage tanks, and a Romanian coal unloader.