Piazza to come alive
THE new owners of a onetime glamour Surfers Paradise shopping centre that started life in the 1980s as The Galleria hope to have it buzzing by November wearing a $10 million new look.
Hong Kong investors bought the four-level centre, renamed The Piazza several years ago, for $22 million in June 2017.
They have ruled out redeveloping the 1.02ha site for at least 15 years.
Previous owner the Raptis Group, prior to the GFC, unveiled plans for a 63-level tower on the site, only to lose control of the property in late 2008.
The new owners have been busy gutting and refitting some of the internal space and signing up new tenants, including national chain Palace Cinemas.
“The corner on which the property sits is being reinvented and the move will be a catalyst for the northern end of central Surfers to come alive again,” leasing agent Michael Parisi said.
Mr Parisi said The Piazza’s owners had renamed the property the X Galaxy Centre and intended to make it a ‘star attraction’ Paradise.
“One of its new drawcards might well include night markets on the ground floor.”
Mr Parisi, a director of Raine and Horne Commercial Gold Coast, said the X Galaxy owners had bought the centre as a long-term holding proposition.
“Many potential buyers saw it only as a redevelopment opportunity.
“The new owners regard it as loaded with upside and see no need to knock it down.
“They’re guaranteeing major tenants there won’t be any demolition clauses in leases for at least 15 years.”
Mr Parisi said the Palace Cinemas lease was a 15-year one, with two five-year options.
He said the new-look centre would have 16 street-level shops on its Surfers Paradise and Elkhorn Ave frontages, with 10 already leased.
The internal area of the ground floor had been gutted, greatly enlarging an existing atrium which would be closed in to creating a larger first floor housing 13 cinemas and a cinema concession area that would include a cafe area overlooking Elkhorn Ave and a bar. in Surfers