Mystery surrounds fruitful investment
TAIWANESE investors have developed what might be termed a Kiwi-flavoured big-spending passion for Mt Tamborine.
A company in which they are directors quietly has spent close to $12 million on an exclusive retreat and two nearby kiwifruit properties.
The retreat is the Pethers Rainforest property in Geissmann Rd and the previously Kiwi-linked farms are in nearby Beacon Rd.
Speculation apparently is swirling around the area as to the motives and intentions of the buyer and its directors.
Will they buy more farms and will they be moving to enlarge the retreat?
The company’s on-theground representative is keeping his head down in terms of spelling out what might transpire.
The entity behind the purchases is Round World Sandy Creek – the creek’s headwaters are on the larger of the kiwifruit farms.
Round World has three Taipei-born-and-based directors and one with a Gold Coast address – 65-year-old Paul Hayden who, with wife Alice, owns two units in the Brighton on Broadwater towers at Southport.
The company ultimately is owned by Round World Universal Pte in Singapore.
The Pethers retreat was built by a Sydney couple and was opened by then-Prime Minister John Howard in September 2002.
Three months after the opening the eco-tourism property, which is on 4.85ha, was sold for $2.2 million to
Dwayne Hill, the American owner of an international holiday club.
Dwayne paid $2.2 million and went on to take the number of Pethers tree houses from six to 10 and make other improvements.
The new owner has paid a Hill company $3.2 million for the retreat.
The major kiwifruit buy is Sandy Creek Orchard, a 19ha property spread over seven titles and which fronts both Geissmann and Beacon roads.
The seller, a company linked to Kiwi Mark Beazley, unsuccessfully auctioned the property in 2017 and has sold it for $7.65 million to Round World.
The other kiwifruit property is an adjoining 1.41ha, sold by another Beazley-linked entity for $850,000.
The new kiwifruit farmers in terms of the larger property, have bought a business that was producing 74,000 trays a year when it was marketed in 2017.
It comes with a packhouse, a six-bedroom Cape Cod-style home surrounded by large fig trees, and five other homes that are tenanted. The previous owner wasn’t hands on – the farm was managed – and it’s believed that Round World Sandy Creek has taken the same route.
Meanwhile, if the investment newcomers want to indulge themselves while visiting their Tamborine assets, they have options aplenty at Pethers.
They range from hot-rock massages through to foot-spa and salt-glow treatments and having an intimate dinner in front of the fireplace in the restaurant – perhaps while sipping on some kiwifruit wine.