A BRIDGE TOO FAR
A LONG-awaited pedestrian bridge connecting The Star Gold Coast with Pacific Fair has stalled indefinitely, with its heavy-hitting property owners failing to agree on how the project should proceed. Five years after they mooted a potential overpass across busy Hooker Blvd, pedestrians are still battling the traffic between them.
“We would love to have the bridge, but a bridge has got two sides,” said Star Entertainment Group CEO Matt Bekier
A LONG-awaited pedestrian bridge connecting The Star Gold Coast with Pacific Fair has stalled indefinitely, with its heavy-hitting property owners failing to agree on how the project should proceed.
Five years after the listed corporate heavyweights behind the Gold Coast landmarks mooted a potential overpass across busy Hooker Blvd, pedestrians are still battling the traffic between them.
This week, The Star Entertainment Group CEO and managing director Matt Bekier said the group was yet to agree with Pacific Fair owners AMP Capital on how to proceed with the project.
“We would love to have the bridge, but a bridge has got two sides and they have to meet in the middle,” he said. “There has to be a meeting of minds.”
He declined to be more specific about progress of discussions.
AMP Capital did not answer questions about the status of its discussions with Star, or whether the companies agreed on how the bridge would be funded and executed.
“We are aware of the idea to connect Pacific Fair and The Star with a pedestrian bridge to facilitate access to the Centre,” it said in a statement.
“The Star is a great partner of ours and we are always supportive and willing to listen to initiatives to improve access and the overall experience of our customers, retailers and the community.”
The statement is a far cry from the enthusiasm showed by Bryan Hynes, then AMP’s shopping centres boss, who in 2016 talked up the proposal as Pacific Fair poured $670 million into a major development.
“To get a bridge that links the convention centre, the casino and us to the main beach makes absolute sense to do,” he said at the time.
“We’ve got a number of options and we’re planning through what those options are.
“I can’t give you a time frame around it but I know that there’s a huge push to actually get a connection, a much better connection, because we all benefit from it.”
Back then, The Star said it was investigating “an elevated pedestrian connection to Pacific Fair, adding to the existing walkway between Jupiters and the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre”.
Queensland managing director Geoff Hogg said at the time the idea was in an “initial design phase”.
As well as being separated from each other by Hooker Blvd, The Star and Pacific Fair are cut off from the remainder of the Broadbeach entertainment precinct by the busy Gold Coast Hwy.
That connection used to be serviced by the Broadbeach monorail, which was decommissioned in 2017.
Talk of the disused rails becoming a pedestrian bridge across the highway came to nothing, and the track was demolished.
Division 10 councillor Darren Taylor said a report was coming before the council in the next month regarding pedestrian or “green” bridges across the city, including Broadbeach.
“That’s coming to us shortly regarding which ones we roll out first,” he said.
“All the green bridges that have been recommended would be fantastic for the city.”
Despite the apparent support for better pedestrian connection through Broadbeach, cost is a likely sticking point, with the new pedestrian bridge between Evandale and Chevron Island, much smaller than what’s needed in Broadbeach, coming in at $19.5 million.
WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THE BRIDGE, BUT A BRIDGE HAS GOT TWO SIDES AND THEY HAVE TO MEET IN THE MIDDLE STAR CEO MATT BEKIER