Reignited in Palm Beach

THE stalled Pavilions Palm Beach retail-residential project is to be reignited following a deal which is intended to expand the retail area and deliver the beachside suburb a major Coles supermarket.

The existing retail area and the undeveloped portion of the highway-front Pavilions site are being bought by Brisbane-based developer Consolidated Properties and partner CVS Lane Capital Partners for $16.25 million in a deal that settles in December.

Consolidated has applied to the city council for approval to reconfigure the 3090sqm retail area and extend it over the 4391sq m vacant portion of the Pavilions site.

The plan is intended to create a ‘modern urbane mall’ with a full-line Coles supermarket and outlets offering “food, fitness and fun”.

Stage one of Pavilions was completed in 2009 and includes two apartment buildings, one of eight levels and one of three, a Coles store, and nine specialty retailers.

Consolidated’s Pavilions plan will, if approved, see existing shops along Fifth Ave retained and the Coles store split into a number of smaller tenancies with a walkway, also lined with shops, connecting from Fifth Ave to the Gold Coast Highway.

The new supermarket will be established on the vacant land, with additional shops fronting the highway.

Hutchinson Builders is expected to start work on the project, which will double parking capacity, early in 2018 and it is due for completion in early 2019.

The vacant land originally was earmarked for stage two of the Pavilions project , which was intended to start in 2010, and was to include 90 apartments.

The start was aborted in the wake of slow sales of the stage one apartments.

The owner of the retail area and stage two land, an arm of the Australian Property Growth Fund, put them on the market by expressions of interest last year, along with the management rights to the existing Pavilions apartments.

Consolidated Properties, which was founded 35 years ago and is headed by Don O’Rorke, is acquiring the rights to add to its existing management rights portfolio.

Mr O’Rorke yesterday said that the Palm Beach move was driven by a strong relationship with Coles.

“They wanted to significantly expand the size of their offering with a brand new 3700sq m latest-generation supermarket,” Mr O’Rorke said.