SPRINT FINISH
THE Gold Coast is ready – and so is Usain Bolt. The Bulletin can reveal the former sprinter will attend next April’s Commonwealth Games. Confirmation of the Jamaican’s attendance comes as the finishing touches are put to the event, with the marathon course revealed and the Bulletin given an exclusive inside look at the completed Athletes’ Village.
THE developer of the $550m Parklands Project – nearing handover to Commonwealth Games organisers for the Athletes Village – tips it will prove a major city legacy.
Grocon, which started construction on the 14-hectare site two years ago, is now onto finishing touches of 1170 apartments and 82 townhouses which will be crucial to its evolution into a Health and Knowledge Precinct.
The few workers still on site are mostly cleaners doing a final polish and sweep before it is temporarily handed early next month to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games organising committee (GOLDOC).
Along with four common areas featuring BBQs and swimming pools are seven hectares of green space including a main park area surrounded by a measured running track. A centrepiece sculpture The Heart, inspired by Natural Bridge at Springbrook National Park, is complete with night lights and a stunning water feature.
The 18 apartment blocks have an in-your-face exterior colour scheme – a mix of bright red, blue, purple, yellow, green and orange – and it extends inside too.
“You certainly couldn’t accuse this project of being bland,” one on-site worker noted yesterday.
Grocon hopes post-Games it will transform into a popular spot for affordable rental accommodation, particularly for staff and students at neighbouring Gold Coast University and private hospitals, plus Griffith University.
Grocon national construction manager Peter Ward said his firm planned to hold the 1170 apartments and 82 townhouses in a rental pool, a sign of its confidence in the southeast Queensland accommodation market. “We believe it is critical to create quality rental accommodation and that’s going to be an important legacy of the Commonwealth Games for the people of the Gold Coast,” he said.
“After the Games, this precinct will offer affordable,
high-quality homes for rent, with parks, shops and public transport at their doorstep.
“It will provide lasting outcomes for many generations to come.”
GOLDOC chairman Peter Beattie said it would be the best Athletes Village for a Commonwealth Games and after the event, one of the two major legacies along with a “better transport system”.
Post-Games, for what Grocon calls “legacy mode”, the site will eventually comprise 637 two-bedroom apartments, 533 one-bedroom apartments and 82 three-bedroom townhouses.
But during the Games in April next year – when it hosts 6500 athletes and officials – the townhouses will be five bedrooms, the two-bedroom apartments will be
three and the one-bedroom apartments will be two.
Once Grocon is handed back the site in July next year it will knock out all temporary walls in the apartments and townhouses to expand the living spaces and reduce the bedrooms.
The residences will be available as rentals from January 1, 2019 and eventually the site will be home to a supermarket and other retail.
Commonwealth Games Minister Kate Jones will be given an official tour of the site today with the sporting extravaganza now 190 days away.
Grocon is also expected to unveil 65 metres of artwork including 72 individual panels on site, paying homage to the “courageous” use of colour on the Gold Coast in the 1960s and 1970s.