Landmark resort sold for $30m

LANDMARK Surfers Paradise resort Tiki Village has sold for more than $30 million and appears poised to make way for a major tower.

An interstate buyer has consummated an unconditional deal to buy the riverfront timeshare property, a favourite with schoolies.

Brad Merkur, of Ray White Commercial, yesterday said he believed the buyer would lodge a development application for the 4598sq m site.

The property has an unlimited height zoning with the potential to build 720 apartments subject to council approval.

“Tiki’s on a blue-chip site and deserves something special,” said Mr Merkur, who handled the sale in tandem with agent Sime Curko.

“The sale shows there’s still a lot of confidence in the Gold Coast from Australian buyers and puts lie to perceptions that the only buyers around for highrise sites are from offshore.”

The price being paid for Tiki Village, in which the units have been sold with vacant possession, has not been disclosed but property sources yesterday said the figure “topped $30m”.

Tiki Village is the second Surfers Paradise timeshare resort to get the “time’s up” call.

In 2015 the 14-level beach- front Surfers Royale in Northcliffe Tce sold for $22.37 million to the sons of the Ridong Group’s Riyu Li, initiator of the three-tower Jewel project.

The eight-level Tiki, built by the late Dan Roberts at the start of the 1980s, was the first project for architect Desmond Brooks when he started the DBI group.

It was refurbished in 1994 and then again in 2012, when it underwent a $2.2m upgrade.

The sale of the 69-unit resort includes a 1472sq m seabed lease and two single-level buildings housing five tenancies.

There is a marina that has been a pick-up, drop-off point for cruise boats.

Tiki Village’s timeshare apartments are held through the Tiki Village Timeshare Trust, for which the Classic Holdingslinked Tiki Village International is the responsible entity.