TATE’S CITY TOWER PLAY
EXCLUSIVE: Highrise plan for Supreme Court and bureaucrats at Southport
TOM Tate wants to restore Southport to its rightful place as the capital of the Gold Coast.
The Mayor has crafted a plan to build commercial towers on council-owned blocks in Southport to create a new hub for state and council workers.
The towers would also house a new library and a Gold Coast Supreme Court. A State Government anchor tenancy would enable the Council to move its operations back to Southport.
MAYOR Tom Tate wants to restore Southport to its rightful place as the capital of the Gold Coast.
Cr Tate will write to the State Government to propose redeveloping two major council-owned sites in Southport that would give the city greater independence from Brisbane.
He wants State Development Minister Cameron Dick to tick off a joint venture project to turn the Southport Library and Athol Paterson car park, and Mal Burke car park into towers containing:
• A State satellite office for the hundreds of Gold Coastbased workers who are currently forced to tackle the gridlocked M1 each day.
• Satellite offices for Ministers such as Kate Jones who spend time on the Gold Coast as part of their portfolio.
• A new library to replace the existing complex.
• A Supreme Court and room for other legal services.
Cr Tate’s bid to bolster to the CBD would also include moving the council chambers from Evandale to the Southport Library site.
“This is about growth and renewal and if the government moves down the path of talking about it, I would immediately take it to council and say the library site should be a potential office building and we would put in the land and get it back as office space, commercial private enterprise and a community centre,” Cr Tate said.
“The idea of having our chambers in a commercial office building is not new. They do it in Vegas.”
Cr Tate said it would allow the council chambers at Evandale, built in the early 2000s, to be converted into a public art space as part of the cultural precinct at the Home of the Arts (HOTA). Council was last based in Southport in 1976.
A spokesman for Mr Dick said “relevant government departments would consider any formal proposals put forward by the council on their merits”.
“The Queensland Government has a productive working relationship with the Gold Coast City Council on a range of projects including the Spit master plan and the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct,” he said.
“I understand from the Attorney-General that there are no plans to locate a Supreme Court on the Gold Coast at this time.”
Tourism Minister Kate Jones said the State Government already provided nearly $1 million annually to Destination Gold Coast to employ staff who lived and worked on the Gold Coast.
“Destination Gold Coast employs 56 people. At the end of the last financial year the tourism department employed nearly half that number in Brisbane,” she said.
Plans to redevelop both the Athol Paterson and Mal Burke car parks have been floated in the past decade.
Legal industry figures and civic leaders have all recently campaigned to have a permanent Supreme Court sit on the Gold Coast given the large number of high-profile cases here. It would mean increased efficiency by preventing lawyers from having to travel up and down the congested M1, allow victims and their families to easily observe proceedings and ensure Gold Coast trials are heard in front of juries made up of Gold Coast residents.
Cr Tate said it was essential the Gold Coast had its own Supreme Court.
“We are the second-biggest city in Queensland and we should have our own Supreme Court. It gives us prestige we rightfully deserve.
“This is the highest law in the state and it should be heard here.
“This as well as more chambers for barristers and facilities available to the next generation of legal students would take our legal economy to the next level.”
Business leaders this year pushed for the Coast to centralise all its state and federal government offices into a single “tower of power”.