The Forum: Surfers Paradise development site’s future revealed
A giant traffic tunnel under Ferny Ave and public plazas are just some of the ideas pitched for central Surfers Paradise in a bid to revamp the Glitter Stirp’s reputation. SEE THE PLANS
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HOW do you solve a problem like Surfers Paradise?
That’s the question Gold Coast city leaders have been asking themselves for more than 35 years, with proposals of all shapes and sizes failing to gain support.
The state of Surfers Paradise and the future of the city’s most famous suburb has come into the spotlight again with the announcement that The Forum shopping centre site was on the market.
The Forum, an ageing Jim Raptis-built arcade shopping centre which straddles between Surfers Paradise Boulevard and Orchid Ave has been put up for sale by longtime-owners EG Funds Management, which is understood to be seeking $60m.
The 5256sq m complex, built in 1987 by Raptis and long home to some of the city’s most famous nightclubs, has been hailed as “the last freehold site” on the Glitter Strip and is expected to attract high-end developers.
There are plenty of opinions about what should be done with it.
Wayne Purcell, a former council candidate has called for the City to buy the site and turn it into a public plaza.
“To buy The Forum Arcade would be a big outlay for council but I don’t think council can rely on The Esplanade and HOTA as the only decent public spaces for Surfers,” he told the Bulletin this week.
It’s not the first bold idea for a public square pitched for reviving Surfers Paradise’s fortunes.
Here are some of the most notable examples.
BICENTENARY PLAZA
Gold Coast Plaza Pty Ltd, a consortium of businessmen, in 1988 proposed that a tunnel be built under Surfers Paradise as a solution to solve the area’s traffic problems.
The $65m proposal would have seen a three-lane tunnel built between Elkhorn Ave and Hanlan St, with a landscaped public plaza built over the top.
The company claimed the project would come at no cost to either the council or the Ahern Government.
However, they did ask that the company control the land under which the tunnel was built.
According to plans showed to the media in 1988, southbound traffic coming from Southport would enter the tunnel on the Gold Coast Hwy near View St and exit near Hanlan St.
Northbound traffic would have been unaffected and continue to travel along Ferny Ave. The developer also planned a “Bicentenary Plaza, a Town Square and an All National Flag Court with an amphitheatre and stage” be built around Cavill Ave mall.
However, local business leaders led by Frank Goldstein formed Surfers Paradise Action on Conserving the Environment (SPACE) and opposed any commercial development on the highway or loss of public space in the heart of Surfers Paradise.
The project failed to go ahead.
THE ‘SPACE SHIP’
In August 1997, Singapore-based developer Hotel Properties Limited announced plans for a $350m, 1570 hotel.
The project, set to be the largest in Australia at the time, was proposed for the old Chevron Hotel site and was tipped to have a “spaceship-like’’ design with a giant public plaza at its base.
Its other features were to include a Planet Hollywood cafe, shops, including the Brash’s music chain a rooftop helicopter landing pad and pool
HPL bought the land for $42m in 1995 with plans for a 29-storey tower which would be double the size of the nation’s then-largest project, the 645-room Nikko Hotel in Darling Harbour and the 1000-room Crown casino in Melbourne.
Architect Desmond Brooks told the Bulletin the hotel would be like a huge intergalactic space station.
“To me, it looked like a massive three-legged space station which had descended from above and touched down in central Surfers Paradise,’’ he said.
However, Rob Borbidge, the state’s conservative Premier, was not in favour and said no new licence would be considered.
HPL threatened to abandon the project unless they got a licence, which ultimately ended the plans.
In December 1998 HPL sold the site for $30m to the Raptis Group which in turn built Chevron Renaissance.
‘OUR OWN KING GEORGE SQUARE’
Former mayor and then-Surfers Paradise councillor Lex Bell announced in 2013 there were plans to demolish the beachfront end of the Paradise Centre and turn it into the Gold Coast’s answer to King George Square.
The move was backed by Surfers Paradise Alliance and Surfers Paradise Surf Life Saving Club but failed to eventuate.
In 2020, club legend Billy James proposed plans for a grand public plaza but the council dismissed this in favour of a $30m redevelopment of the land by the Paradise Centre.
The upgrade opened earlier this year and has proven to be an immediate hit.
‘Not a nice place’: What people really think of Surfers Paradise
WITH The Forum site on the market, local store owners operating out of the ageing arcade say an upgrade is sorely needed – and the community needs to be at the forefront of any future plans.
For the two months that Olga Oryspayeva, 49, has owned the LollieLane store in The Forum, building issues have plagued her from a leaky roof to electrical issues.
“So depending on the type of development they are planning to do I think it can be good if they fix this old building, since I got here I’ve been wanting to leave because of all the problems in the building,” Ms Oryspayeva said.
Squire’s Ink employee Siarne Forsyth, 25, said redevelopment was an opportunity to “revamp” The Forum.
“No one wants to spend their time here because it’s not a nice place – everything is condensed and is really old … this place really needs a facelift,” she said.
“In some areas the buildings are really rundown so people struggle to find us or they don’t feel safe because the area looks a bit dodgy,” Fox in a Box Escape Room assistant manager Imogen Webster, 22, said.
But as a local resident Ms Webster also noted that it was hard for young people to live in Surfers when everything was planned for tourism.
Phillip Smith, 64, who has owned the Phases Men’s Fashion store for 35 years, said he has watched the Surfer’s Paradise local community wither away as waves of developers became increasingly focused on tourism.
“(Developers) have chased the locals out – they don’t come here because there’s no essential services left for them,” he said.
Along with essential services, Kirsty Segade, 29, owner of La Mode Collection said a priority should be housing.
“Especially with rentals, there’s a bit of a crisis and if they did do more residential, it would definitely help the area,” she said.
‘Don’t nuke Surfers Paradise’: How to fix development hub
SURFERS Paradise landowners have been urged to join the redevelopment wave sweeping the Glitter Strip.
But State MP John-Paul Langbroek has warned against any attempt to compel them to develop their sites, saying “we’re not Russian, we’re not Iran”.
The Forum, an ageing Jim Raptis-built arcade shopping centre which straddles between Surfers Paradise Boulevard and Orchid Ave has been put up for sale by longtime-owners EG Funds Management, which is understood to be seeking $60m.
The 5256sq m complex, built in 1987 by Raptis and long home to some of the city’s most famous nightclubs, has been hailed as “the last freehold site” on the Glitter Strip and is expected to attract high-end developers.
Mr Langbroek, the Member for Surfers Paradise who had a dental surgery in the neighbouring Dolphin Arcade before his 2004 election to parliament, said it was critical for the Gold Coast’s most famous suburb to get a facelift.
However, despite calls to limit property owners’ abilities to land-bank their sites, Mr Langbroek said the free market needed to determine when developments were built.
“We cannot specify to landowners that they must do a development within a certain amount of time because we are not Russia, we are not Iran,” he said.
“There has been a public debate about revamping Surfers Paradise and it is now up to commercial land owners and land lords to do something about their properties and rents to reinvigorate the area. They need to work hand-in-hand with the council because calls to nuke Surfers Paradise and start again are unrealistic for anyone to expect.”
Mr Langbroek said rising interest rates and spiking construction costs would likely delay projects for a number of years.
Business bosses are pushing for the Surfers Paradise masterplan to be fast-tracked to revitalise the party precinct and say city leaders must ensure The Forum’s new buyer is serious about building their project, warning key Surfers Paradise sites cannot continue to be land banked.
Area councillor Darren Taylor said the public would get their first glimpse of the masterplan before Christmas after more than two years of work.
EG bought the land from the listed Cromwell Corporation for $42m in 2010. It filed plans with the Gold Coast City Council in August 2017 for Wanderlust – two towers of 71 and 51-levels which was to feature a high-end open-air venue pitched as “the new entertainment hub for Southeast Asia”.
The two new towers were approved for more than 1000 rooms, including a 400-room, five-star hotel but the project never proceeded.
The successful opening in August of the Paradise Centre’s $30m revamp has spurred business leaders to push for any development on the site to be fast-tracked in order to give central Surfers Paradise a similar facelift.
Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce president Martin Hall said the precinct-wide revamp of Surfers Paradise was long-overdue.
‘Big impact': Surfers mega development’s future revealed
PLANS for two giant gold towers in the heart of Surfers Paradise have been shelved, with the developer behind them putting the prominent site on the market.
The Forum, an ageing Jim Raptis-built arcade shopping centre which straddles between Surfers Paradise Boulevard and Orchid Ave has been put up for sale by longtime-owners EG Funds Management, which is understood to be seeking $60m.
The 5256sq m complex, built in 1987 by Raptis and long home to some of the city’s most famous nightclubs, has been hailed as “the last freehold site” on the Glitter Strip and is expected to attract high-end developers.
But business bosses, who are pushing for the Surfers Paradise masterplan to be fast-tracked to revitalise the party precinct, say city leaders must ensure its new buyer is serious about building their project, warning key Surfers Paradise sites cannot continue to be land banked.
CBRE Gold Coast boss Mark Witheriff, who has been appointed to market the project with McVay Real Estate Australia, said the site was the largest remaining development site in central Surfers Paradise.
“It has council approval for two towers so whatever happens there could have a really big impact on Surfers Paradise,” he said.
“This would be a city-shaping development which connects all the pieces like Hilton and Cavill Ave and the ability to do a genuine mixed-use development is really exciting.”
EG bought the land from the listed Cromwell Corporation for $42m in 2010.
It filed plans with the Gold Coast City Council in August 2017 for Wanderlust – two towers of 71 and 51-levels which was to feature a high-end open-air venue pitched as “the new entertainment hub for Southeast Asia”.
The two new towers were approved for more than 1000 rooms, including a 400-room, five-star hotel.
At its heart was to be the 4733sq m Wanderlust Pool Club which it was hoped would attract world-class DJ and entertainment acts to Surfers Paradise.
The new owner would be free to build the towers, with the development approval not set to expire until 2028.
The successful opening in August of the Paradise Centre’s $30m revamp has spurred business leaders to push for any development on the site to be fast-tracked in order to give central Surfers Paradise a similar facelift.
Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce president Martin Hall said the precinct-wide revamp of Surfers Paradise was long-overdue.
“I was in Surfers Paradise (on Saturday) and the (changes to) the front of the Paradise Centre have made a huge difference there and if that isn’t a good sign for what should happen to the rest of the suburb than nothing is,” he said.
“That got rid of the legacy grunginess of what was there before and has created a great new shopfront for Surfers Paradise.
“This needs to be a trigger for council and the state to invest in the beautification of the area and the momentum for this is powerful and doesn’t take a lot to get going.”
Area councillor Darren Taylor said the council’s masterplan was been developed carefully to ensure it delivered the best long-term boost for the area.
“(The Forum) is a key part of Surfers Paradise and we need to ensure that at some point they do a development which will improve the suburb’s centre,” he said.
“There are going to be challenges moving forward with the building industry and some projects stacking up but if it does get sold I look forward to seeing what they propose to do.”
WHAT SURFERS PARADISE BUSINESS OWNERS THINK OF DEVELOPMENT
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