Mayor offloads bowls club site

MAYOR Tate and a partner are fattening their “kitties” in the wake of a buyer successfully rolling out a $22m offer for their Surfers Paradise Bowls Club site.

The 4999sq m site, at one time approved for a 56-level tower called Waterglow, has been bought by a Sydney group.

Roland Evans, the agent who handled the sale, yesterday said Councillor Tate was “very delighted” over the transaction.

Cr Tate yesterday could not be contacted to comment on the deal.

The Waterglow site has been sold by companies associated with Cr Tate and accountant Barry Pinkstone. They paid $2.7m in October to buy out a partner, former hotel operator Kelvin Gersbach, and then put the property on the market.

Canford Estate Agents principal Mr Evans said the $22m buyer headed off another Sydney buyer, one from Melbourne, and a Singaporean group.

“The buyer doesn’t have any Gold Coast interests but is a multifaceted developer in Sydney, with projects ranging from commercial, retail and medical centres to apartments.

“They thought the Waterglow site offered good value and that it gave them plenty of development scope.”

Mr Evans said the centre zoning on the property allowed a mixed-use project that could include a hotel, apartments, and retail or commercial space.

Surfers Paradise Bowls Club, the second oldest bowls club in the city, closed a decade ago and its greens, which sit above a carpark, were abandoned.

The debt-laden club’s headquarters, on the first floor and part of the ground floor of the Surfers Paradise Plaza adjoining the greens, were bought by a Tate-linked company, Crestden, for $1.43m in 2007.

Later the greens were bought for $770,000 and they were transferred to the Waterglow partners for $190,000 in 2009 in a deal that involved the forgiving of debt.

In 2016 the partners paid the state government $2.05m for 811sq m in Peninsular Drive that took in part of the bowls club ground-level carpark.