Mayor’s mansion on the market
TOM Tate’s mayoral manor is to be put on the market in a “healthy option” move that could see the Gold Coast’s civic leader pocket a juicy profit.
The Sorrento property was bought at auction for $3.3 million less than three years ago and swelled in size last year with the $1.5 million purchase of an adjoining site.
The Tate house today is the centrepiece of a 5261sq m holding with a near 80m river frontage.
The Waterview Crescent property is to be marketed as a potential eightlot riverfront residential subdivision, which could fetch between $7 million and $9 million. Offers are being sought for the property, being sold by Mr Tate and wife Ruth in a downsizing move.
Roland Evans, of Canford Property Group, yesterday said Mr Tate realised the property had upside when he bought it.
“He’s a professional businessman and was well aware of the options it offered when the day came that he and his wife wanted to move on,” he said.
Mr Evans said health issues suffered by Mr and Mrs Tate last year were a major factor in their decision to “go smaller”.
Mrs Tate experienced a near-fatal heart attack in Singapore and her husband underwent a bowelcancer operation.
The Canford principal said the Tates already were “evaluating” properties that would be more manageable.
The Tate house has a floor area of more than 1400sq m and includes four bedrooms and three bathrooms.
It sits on land developed by former mayor Sir Bruce Small and was completed in 1980 for his son, the late Bruce “Kelly” Small.
Mr Evans said the Tates spent hundreds of thousands of dollars upgrading the house and adding garaging.
Mr Evans said the Tate property might draw buyers who wanted to keep it as a family residence, others who might want to live there while they explored their options, and others who wanted to demolish the house and move straight into subdivision mode.
A valuer yesterday said that it would be wrong to assume that if the Tates achieved a sale it necessarily would be multi-millions of dollars more than what they paid.
“Anyone wanting to subdivide has to face a lot of costs, from development approvals through to servicing the land.”