Tall tale behind O’Brien’s high-rise
THE lead-up to a planned elite Main Beach apartment tower could be unfurled as the story of a developer who sets high benchmarks for his projects, a prince and a three-times ‘pauper’.
Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke and the Dubai royal family could be thrown into the mix too.
The developer is a property player in the form of Rory F. O’Brien.
The prince is called Andrew and the ‘pauper’ is former Gold Coast property marketeer Dudley Quinlivan.
Rory, from Sydney, has tied up an 814sq m site in Main Beach Pde, one close to towers De Ville, Pintari, Newport on Main, Admiral North and Yachting Towers.
He’s seeking the green light to build a 37-level building with 29 single-floor apartments and a twolevel penthouse.
The BDA-designed tower, unashamedly termed high-end, is aimed at owner-occupiers.
Rory’s no stranger to such top-shelf projects, with one he embarked upon at Airlie Beach’s Whisper Bay before the GFC causing him many years of anguish.
He and another investor tipped in $20 million and funded a 104-villa project via Bankwest.
One villa was bought by Bob Hawke and others successfully were marketed in the Middle East through the Duke of York, Prince Andrew who is now plagued by the investigation into the Jeffery Epstein scandal.
Hotel group Essque, controlled by the Dubai royal family, was teed up to manage the development as a hotel.
By 2009 the project was all but completed, on budget, and had $106m in pre-sales.
Then Bankwest, which had been rescued by the Commonweath Bank months earlier, demanded repayment of $178m in loans and called in receivers.
Rory engaged in a long legal stoush with the CBA that was settled in 2014.
The Main Beach project shows the developer, who had suffered what he termed “total financial annihilation”, is well and truly back on his feet and out to deliver a landmark building.
He’s bought a site occupied by commercial buildings and which was owned by a company linked to marketeer Dudley until mortgagees stepped in nine years ago.
The thrice-bankrupted Dudley had held apartment ambitions for the site, in the form of a luxury 11-level building designed by the DBI group.
Just what Rory might be paying for the site is unclear – Kiwi-born owner Stuart Robertson bought it from receivers for $2.25m and in 2017 was chasing at least $6.5m.
The ‘ask’ later was trimmed to $5m but Avanti agent Lachlan Harris isn’t saying boo about what Rory is paying.
The O’Brien plan is laced with goodies for its residents, who
obviously will be shelling out multiple millions to buy a floor.
Four of the 37 levels will be for resident activities and recreation, with levels one and two housing the expected pool, spa, sauna and gym, along with a yoga lawn.
Owners will be able to head to the 23rd and 24th floors for indoor
outdoor dining and to just lounge about.
They will not, however, be able to sit in their apartment lounges and admire their cars, a la in a sky-garage tower approved for a nearby site two weeks ago.
No, they’ll have to go conventional and catch a lift-ride to the basement.