Bakery purchase is last slice of pie
WAYNE McCrae, veteran of the mining industry, has bought a slice of Main Beach’s Tedder Ave that includes the building housing the beachside suburb’s landmark bakery.
The 71-year-old yesterday said he had also bought the Main Beach Bakery business that was leasing the building.
“No, I haven’t put on the baker’s hat but I’ve kept the same efficient and hardworking staff, so nothing’s changed,” he said.
The McCrae family holding takes in the five titles spanning 506sq m that make up 24 Tedder Ave, on the western corner of Peak Ave.
The amalgamation is the culmination of an exercise that started in 1995.
Mr McCrae said ownership of the site gave him a potential redevelopment holding but he would do nothing for at least three to five years.
“Even then I’ll have to see what’s allowed – I’m not into high-rises,” he said.
“I’d build something that blends in with the Main Beach character that was established decades ago.
“I’m not a fan of glass and shine.”
Mr McCrae said the first of the five titles, one today occupied by the Hard Coffee cafe, was bought 24 years.
An adjoining title, at one point occupied by wife Cheryl’s Cheran shoe boutique and today empty, was added two years later.
The purchase of the bakery title, for $1 million, has settled.
Mr McCrae said two other titles fronting Peak Ave were under contract in deals that would settle before Christmas.
A near neighbouring owner is a company associated with a nephew of Aussie Home Loans founder John Symonds, which paid
$5.5 million for seven titles in Main Beach Plaza.
Minerals explorer Mr McCrae has operated at least three mining businesses from the Gold Coast over the past 40 years, including Diversified Mineral Resources and Australian Mining Investments.
He founded copper hopeful Cudeco, which he left in 2015 with Chinese investors in control and has since failed.
Mr McCrae, who spent several years working in Tanzania, became a consultant to Ausmex Mining in 2017, a company in which he was a major shareholder.