Elephant’s big options
GREG and Barbara Colwill are engaging in what might be termed “trunk-cating” – they are selling the home of the beachfront Elephant Rock Cafe at Currumbin and plan to make a meal out of retirement.
The landmark restaurant and bar, winner of an REIQ design award, is one of two buildings on their 502sq m site at 776 Pacific Pde.
Since opening at Easter 1990, the cafe has hosted everything from christenings and weddings to funeral functions and has been visited by celebrities such as Mariah Carey and Chris Hemsworth.
The property, to be auctioned on Sunday, April 8, is the second cafe holding in the street to go on the market this month, with expressions of interest being sought for a two-title holding that is home to the Beach Shack Cafe and units at 818-820 Pacific Pde.
The Elephant Rock Cafe’s Mr Colwill, a former vet who went to Japan to teach English and study ceramics, was drawn to the site after returning to Australia in the mid-’80s.
At the time the front of the property housed a longstanding kiosk-type cafe with garden-furniture seating for customers under a covered area at the back.
After the property was bought by a Colwill company for $450,000 in 1988, architect Philip Follent was engaged to design a new cafe building.
A two-level house behind the original cafe was incorporated into the new cafe, leaving a two-bedroom building at the site’s rear.
The Colwill business, which operates seven days a week and includes a licensed restaurant, employs 25 people and turns over $2.25 million a year.
Mr Colwill, who has staged ceramic exhibitions on the Gold Coast, yesterday said the initial crockery was handmade but “that didn’t survive for long in a commercial setting”.
One of the more notable functions held at the cafe involved 80 bankers and investors from India.
Mrs Colwill said the cafe staff had to prepare solely Indian food, Bollywood movies were shown, and there were performances by jugglers, trapeze artists and firestick twirlers.
“All that was drunk was whisky – and a lot of it.”
The Colwills, who are selling the property to retire, own a home on the Currumbin hill and intend to travel.
Greg Watson, of Ray White Commercial GC South, yesterday said the Colwill property offered a buyer three options.
“They’ll only be buying the property but that doesn’t stop them from continuing to run what is a highly-successful business.
“There also are development options, one being to clear the site and start again.
“Another is to remove the two-bedroom property and use its site, and the vacant land behind it for a home or units, with stunning beach views.”