HIGHWAY OF BROKEN DREAMS
Broadbeach and Mermaid Beach have long attracted big developments but some have been more successful than others.
THE Gold Coast Highway runs the length of the Glitter Strip and is the spine of the city’s development zone.
As a major arterial road and the location of the light rail and its future route, it is a magnet for development up and down the coastline.
But for some developers it has proven to be a boulevard of broken dreams over the decades as some projects were greenlit, while others fell by the wayside.
The Bulletin this week revealed prolific developer Aniko Group was planning a $1bn, four-tower mega project next to the Gold Coast’s biggest shopping centre.
The resort-style project is earmarked for a 1.1342ha site at Seaview Ave next to Pacific Fair Shopping Centre and the Broadbeach public transport hub and will provide more than 1000 units for the city’s depleted stocks.
According to plans which will be lodged with the Gold Coast City Council later this year, the “micro-community”, which will border Broadbeach and Mermaid Beach, includes a “premium” masterplanned residential, hotel, waterfront dining and office development.
Residents of Broadbeach and Mermaid Beach expressed mixed feelings about the rising wave of development around the tram route, something industry figures only expect to escalate in coming years as the city’s population grows.
Despite being the location of the city’s first hotel tower, development has long been controversial in Broadbeach and Mermaid Beach.
Back in 1986 the plan to redevelop the old Broadbeach International Hotel into what is today the Oasis Shopping Centre and mall.
The objections, lodged with council by residents in Charles Ave, warned their street would become a “traffic nightmare from vehicles using a drive-in bottle shop, parking areas and loading ramps” while their outlook would be “disfigured” by three levels of carparking and a bottle shop.
The objections failed to halt the redevelopment or the arrival of the Broadbeach monorail.
Jumping forward to the early 2000s, the state government’s plans to build the future Gold Coast Convention and exhibition centre, drew flak from residents who feared it would bring “financial ruin” to nearly shop owners impacted by its construction.
In 2005 the council’s planning committee approved Niecon developer Con Nikiforides’ twin-tower project CBD – Central Beach Development, later renamed Oracle.
The project drew heated criticism from area councillor Eddy Sarroff who attacked it for being 20-storeys higher than the area’s height limit.
Cr Sarroff said the towers’ approval meant the sky was the limit for Broadbeach developments.
`”This really sets a precedent for any future developers to come in and build 60 or 70storey towers,’’ he said.
`”What is the point of setting up town planning rules if we’re only going to break them.’’
Cr Sarroff also attacked Meriton boss Harry Triguboff’s 2006 plans for a twintower, H-shaped high-rise, a project which was also built despite his opposition.
While these projects prevailed against protests, others were not so lucky.
Developer John Potter has repeatedly attempted to redevelop the Main Place precinct which fronts the Highway in central Broadbeach.
The nine-title block was assembled slowly by Mr Potter between 2004 and 2008.
The original Main Place project was lodged with council in 2010 and approved under a court order in 2013.
Under that proposal, it was to be a 52-storey mixed-use tower with 520 units, a 173 suite resort hotel, offices, cafes, restaurants, commercial services and a carpark.
However, the project stalled and never went ahead.
In late 2018 he unveiled plans for Central on Broadbeach, two 68-storey supertowers which would have had room for nearly 1500 residents.
However, this project too failed to eventuate and the site was put on the market again in 2021.
The future site of the new Aniko project has also long been dogged by failed attempts to redevelop and transform it.
Developer Mark Howard in the late 2000s pitched plans for a $300m lifestyle centre which was to have a $170 million 40-storey tower at its heart, including 132 apartments, cafes, restaurants, a medical centre and office space.
However, Mr Howard’s companies were placed in receivership in April 2012 and he successfully sold it for $20m to Singaporean group Ho Bee Investment.
Another Howard project, a 28-storey tower affectionately known by city leaders as “Blade Runner” and earmarked on the site of Mermaid Beach stalled.
Ho Bee never announced any intention to develop the site and finally put it on the market in April 2017. However, it failed to find a buyer despite several expressions of interest campaigns. It sold the site to Aniko for $30m this year.