A Modern take on retail
RON Bayley, property investor and principal of home-improvement business the Modern Group, is planning a $50-million-plus large format retail centre at Coomera.
The Mermaid Beach-based businessman, via company Coomera Supercentre, is to undertake the project on land for which a world trade centre was once mooted.
The 7.3ha property, which fronts the Old Pacific Highway near Foxwell Rd, has been bought for $8 million, with the deal settling in August.
Mr Bayley yesterday said he had been working on plans for the land for some time and was in the process of refining them.
“I am taking the time to get this project right,” he said.
“I want to create something special – a destination for the Gold Coast that consumers will want to visit.”
Mr Bayley said he and wife Tina hoped to have the project under way within two months.
Coomera Supercentre bought its land from AGS Land Holdings, a trustee company associated with former Colliers commercial property agent Andrew Spottiswood. AGS in 2014 paid $4.4 million for the land, which is adjacent to the Coomera Town Centre site and is zoned for showroom and bulky goods uses.
The seller was a receiver to companies Quinnco and Trimglint, linked to lawyer John Quinn and valuer Rob Boylan.
Quinnco and Trimglint bought the property for $4.2 million in 2005.
Five years ago then-listed company Sabina Corporation mooted buying the land to build a $500 million world trade centre which was to include an office tower, hotel, conferencing space and shops.
Mr Bayley bought the Adelaide-based Modern Group in the 1990s and later transferred its headquarters to Sydney.
He and his family moved to the Gold Coast 16 years ago and his wife, son Jordan and daughters Chani and Taela are involved in the business.
Modern operates across Australia, has manufacturing facilities on the Gold Coast, and its products include window roller shutters, and plantation and louvre shutters.
Mr Bayley said the Coomera centre would include the Modern Group’s solar systems.
He is a partner, with Mark, Steve, Lucy and Claudia Canning, in the Gold Coast-based Centurian garage-door manufacturing business.