Nikiforides venture Biggera and better
THE family that delivered the reach-for-the-sky twin Oracle towers at Broadbeach a decade ago is heading high again, but in very conservative fashion. The Nikiforides family’s move is part of what could be termed a one-up, one-down scenario.
There are plans for an apartment tower and there also are plans, by a third party, to bowl one of the family’s Broadbeach legacies.
William Nikiforides, son of Oracle developer the late Con Nikiforides, and family company Niecon Developments have high-rise ambitions beside the Broadwater at Biggera Waters.
The plan is the latest chapter in the life of Niecon, which was started by the late Bill Nikiforides in Canberra and moved to the Gold Coast in 1978.
Son Con, who died in 2017, embarked on the Oracle towers in 2007, viewing them as a lasting memorial to his dad.
The family name has remained in the development game thanks to William and his siblings, lawyer John and property manager James, teaming up.
They set out in 2014 with a sevenlevel building, The Park, on land adjoining the Mermaid Beach Bowls Club.
They’ve since progressed to a fastselling 10-level project, Ventura Residences, on the eastern side of the Gold Coast Highway at Broadbeach.
It seems success breeds height, with land overlooking the Broadwater at Biggera Waters earmarked for an Archidiom-designed 14-level building.
Paperwork seeking a city-council green light for the 90-apartment project describes the 2288sq m site as being in an ideal location to provide for holiday accommodation.
The unnamed project is not far from Aqua, a tower beside the Broadwater at Labrador that marked a Niecon decision to start the new millennium with upmarket towers that came with shops and restaurants at their bases.
Aqua, completed in 2004, became something of a template for the twin Reflection towers at Coolangatta and Nirvana by the Sea at Kirra.
The decision to embark on the Oracle renewed a Niecon love affair with Broadbeach where, many years earlier, it had built low-rise holiday resorts.
It also had developed the Niecon Plaza and Niecon Tower office building
fronting the Broadbeach mall.
The Oracle project, despite strong sales prior to the GFC hitting property confidence, came to grief as it was finished in late 2010, with receivers taking over and selling off remaining stock.
Meanwhile, while the Nikiforides team is aiming high at Biggera Waters, one of grandfather Bill’s Broadbeach
legacies is poised to disappear.
The Niecon Plaza has been bought by Sydney’s Iris Capital as part of a $58.5m deal that includes the Niecon Tower and two adjoining commercial properties.
The plaza, but not the tower, is destined for demolition under plans for twin high-rises with major retail space fronting Albert Ave.