Will this be last of its kind in Main Beach?
‘AND then there was one’ – that’s a scenario fast developing at Main Beach. The ‘one’ could be the last beach cottage from another era left standing beside the suburb’s golden sands.
Today the near 50-yearold home is one of two surviving redevelopment but, with the other property about to go under the hammer, it soon could be a loner.
Should that become the case, it then will be a question of how long the owners of the ‘survivor’ will resist continuing approaches from agents and buyers armed with multi-million–dollar offers.
The two-level property belongs to the Noonan family from Brisbane and was bought for $45,550 in 1977.
It’s on a 445sq m site flanked by the Hibiscus tower to the south and businesswoman Katie Page’s boutique M3565 apartment building to the north.
The demise of the very tidy beach house would end a golden era that started many decades ago and saw both family and holiday homes pop up fronting the ocean at Main Beach.
Not all were so-called beach shacks or cottages – some were rather substantial two-level houses.
Over the past 40 years or so many have been skittled to make way for apartment projects – three of them modest towers – and for highend beachfront homes.
Main Beach, after being a no-go zone for high-rise developers since 2008, began riding a new wave in 2020.
Five towers – only one of them is under construction – are being marketed and another is about to be launched.
Only one of those towers is going on the beachfront – on a 607sq m site bought by Kiwi developer Danny Andrews for a buxom $10.6 million in a deal that has just gone unconditional.
Steve Holmes, a Robina accountant, in July snared the northern-most beachfront house on the Gold Coast, for $7.3 million, leaving several buyers with big wallets in his jetstream.
The solid two-level home – the newest of the ‘oldies’ – was built in the late 70s and is on a 458sq m site which it appears is intended for a new home.
It seems odds on that some of the losing aspirants might turn up in later January for the auction of the ‘other’ of the suburb’s remaining beach cottages.
The property’s been in the hands of one Melpomene Stavrou for nearly 50 years and is on a 402sq m site, with a four-level building on its southern side and the threelevel Four Corners units to the north.
There are moves afoot to amalgamate Four Corners, which is on a 758sq m lot that fronts both Main Beach Pde and Breaker St.
It might well be more than coincidence that as the Four Corners exercise is a work in progress, the Stavrou property has become available.
Putting that site together with Four Corners would create an 1160sq m holding that would greatly enhance the scope of any new development.
Meanwhile, spare a thought for an ageing fellow who is passionate about building a home on the beachfront at Main Beach.
He’s willing to spend north of $6 million to get a site but was left in the after-burners on both the Andrews and Holmes sites.
Maybe the Stavrou auction will be a case of third time lucky.