PARADISE LOST AT COVE
Couran Cove was unveiled 25 years ago with a bright future. But it hasn’t been smooth sailing.
COURAN Cove was supposed to be the future of the Gold Coast – an exclusive eco resort serving both tourists and its residents with incredible facilities away from the mainland.
The brainchild of champion runner and future Gold Coast mayor Ron Clarke, the resort was revealed to the public 25 years ago with great fanfare and, for more than a decade, it became a must-visit location, with celebrities, international athletes and politicians all making the trip across the Broadwater.
But the past decade has seen the sheen come off.
The Bulletin last week revealed the shocking conditions residents of the resort have recently faced, including being without hot water and gas for cooking for two weeks after evacuation warnings about a major explosion that could damage buildings and “even kill”.
Needless to say, it’s not what Mr Clarke had hoped his resort would become known for when he unveiled it to the public in 1996.
The $70m project was to be a 151ha resort including a 4ha harbour, 6ha lagoon on the Broadwater and a surf club on a 2km ocean frontage.
Mr Clarke said the resort would ultimately accommodate 1500 in a mixture of harbourside, residential and wilderness lodges.
He said it would be the “high-water mark of eco-tourism’’.
But despite its green credentials, Couran Cove was immediately controversial with the environmentalist movement.
The Australian Conservation Foundation insisted the resort threatened the island’s environment and warned they would blockade the site.
“If the activity is seen to be compromising the quality of the environment then we won’t hesitate in blockading the development,’’ group president Peter Farrell said.
“The community will need to show its outrage by rallying in the streets and holding public protests – we have more than 2000 people at this stage who are willing to take to the streets.’’
Mr Clarke dismissed the group, saying that its concerns were unfounded as developers had spent nearly $100,000 to ensure the environment remained “100 per cent pure’’.
Couran Cove opened in 1998 and was an immediate success, becoming a popular location for professional sport teams to visit and stay during training camps.
Its state-of-the-art athletics training facility was opened by US Olympics sprinting legend Carl Lewis.
Its residential component was also popular, recording $50m in sales across its 249 units, beach lodges and villas.
In 2000 the resort was home to several major teams visiting for the Sydney Olympics, including Britain’s track and field athletes.
Mr Clarke exited the resort and went on to become Gold Coast Mayor for eight years before his death in 2015.
But throughout the 2000s Couran Cove continued to go from strength to strength, winning multiple awards for its restaurants and eco-friendly features and attracting leading hospitality talent.
But the glitz began to wear off into the 2010s when multiple issues became public.
In 2011 the resort closed after its owner, US philanthropist Chuck Feeney ended his fiscal support forcing liquidators to be appointed.
“The resort has been operating at a considerable loss for a number of years and sadly, despite our best efforts, this is an unsustainable position for any business operation,’’ InterPacific Group said in a statement.
In 2012 it was bought for $150m by Brisbane businessman Craig Dowling who signed it up to the Ramada hotel chain.
But issues persisted over body corporate disputes and fees, leading Wyndham Hotel Group to withdraw the Ramada brand from the resort in late 2016 over “reputational concerns”.
Couran Cove is made up of a layered, complex body corporate scheme which has several small bodies corporate paying fees to an overall body and disputes were common.
A $100m revamp was announced by Eureka Group Holdings, which took over the management of the resort but this too failed. along with a plan
to turn it into a retirement village.
Eureka abandoned the resort in late 2018 and it was sold in 2019 to EDG Capital.
The same year, tests by Gold Coast Health and the Gold Coast City Council in late 2019 found a “high level of iron and arsenic is right on the line” at the Couran Cove water treatment plant and recommended the resort implement a water risk management plan.
Subsequent investigations found the water safe to drink.
Trouble continued into 2020 when a power supplier threatened to cut the electricity, water and sewerage to more than
350 units at the resort unless $5.5m in debts were paid to two infrastructure companies.