New culture club
Eatery to neighbour $16m precinct bridge
A CHEVRON Island couple wants to transform a house into the suburb’s first waterside bar and restaurant.
Joe and Jan Filipovic, through their company Filipovic Holdings, have applied to gut their Stanhill Drive house and transform it into a dining venue featuring indoor and outdoor seating areas overlooking the Nerang River.
It will neighbour the planned $16.3 million “friendship” bridge, which will link the island to the Evandale Cultural precinct. The bridge will be built as part of the precinct’s second stage, along with a $60 million art gallery. Construction is expected to begin in September and, weather depending, it will open early next year.
The proposed restaurant on Stanhill Dr will also have a takeaway coffee bar. Its upstairs bedrooms will be retained as caretaker’s accommodation.
Customers would be able to leave the restaurant and cross public land on to the bridge, which will go over the Nerang River to the cultural precinct, which includes the Home of the Arts (HOTA), Evandale Lake, parkland and the Gold Coast City Council chambers.
Restaurant Industry Support Gold Coast Association president Glen Day said the new eatery was in the “perfect” location to capitalise on the increasing pedestrian traffic expected once the bridge opens.
“It would be in just the right spot for a restaurant and would have a very nice view,” Mr Day said.
“There is going to be quite a lot of people who will be coming through there so I think they will be in the perfect position.”