Broadwater towers plan back on the boil
ATEAM of Melbourne property players has ignited plans to give Southport a high-rise first – apartment towers where it’s not necessary to cross the road to get to the Broadwater.
The twin buildings will be the first towers on the eastern side of Marine Pde and are the upshot of an entrepreneurial fellow spotting an opportunity when on the Gold Coast four years ago.
Vincent Lee snaffled a near 2000sq m site overlooking the city council’s Broadwater Tourist Park at Southport’s northern end and close to Loders Creek.
It was home to ageing flats and at the time it probably wasn’t regarded as a potential high-rise site.
The ‘potential’ changed in 2013 when the State Government lifted the lid on height restrictions by creating a Priority Development Area in Southport.
The Lee site, held through company Tourism and Travel Australia, just happened to be in the PDA area.
The upshot was the successful filing of a development application for Sails on Broadwater with towers of 27 and 30 levels.
The site was quietly offered for sale after the granting of the DA but it came to nothing.
Earlier this year it was decided to push on with the project with a development group from Melbourne, Three Pillars, taking an equity stake and with associate company Buildcap acting as project manager.
The Sails name has been dropped in favour of Marine Quarter, which will be built in two stages and provide 231 apartments plus commercial space.
The Three Pillars group is not exactly a virgin when it comes to Gold Coast property development.
It ventured north in 2016 when it bought a $5.9-million site overlooking the ocean in Kirra’s Musgrave St and went on to build luxury 15-level tower Iconic.
Vincent, the instigator of Marine Quarter, describes himself as an investor, a hat that’s apparently seen him undertake boutique residential projects in Melbourne.
Marine Quarter is a far bigger toe in the residential water, size and cost wise, which probably explains the introduction of an equity partner with tower skills.
The plan is to make ‘Marine’ a two-stage project, with the first building, the ocean tower, tipped to be started by July for completion in 2020.
Marketing already is under way with views that for many apartments will look over the Broadwater to the ocean an enticement to buyers willing to spend between $349,000 and $1.4 million.
A builder, in the form of the Toowoomba-founded McNab group, is in tow.
Marine Quarter is not far from an apartment tower that’s well on the way to completion but isn’t, at this point, a Marine Quarter sales rival.
Brisbane developer Phil Usher is ploughing ahead with his 35-floor 120 Marine Parade but he won’t be selling the units – he’s chasing a buyer for the whole building.
Jim Raptis, not the limelight developer that he once was, appears to have been quietly sniffing around Main Beach, a suburb where earlier aspirations were crunched. Property watchers believe never-go-grey Jim has had a nibble at a tower site owned by the Winten group and also might have been eyeing one owned by elderly Brisbane investor Steve Kaskabas. Jim’s listed Raptis Group bought the site of the former Midwaters low-rise in Main Beach Pde in 2007 but lost control of it in the GFC.