The Lanes Shopping Centre: Shock twist in future of Sunland-designed Mermaid Waters retail village
The future of grand plans to build a $200m new shopping centre on the central Gold Coast as part of $1bn mini-city can be revealed after a fateful decision.
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A company that has been headed by a fellow who swam in two Olympics for Mozambique is set to climb out of a $200 million development pool at Mermaid Waters.
The land earmarked for The Lanes at The Lakes community is heading on to the market, offering another developer the chance to run with the retail-resort venture.
A start on The Lanes, set for a high-profile spot on the corner of Nerang-Broadbeach Rd and Bermuda St, by developer Panthera might have been ‘drowned’ by construction costs.
One observer says they came in $30 million higher than expected.
The Lanes, touted as the first retail centre of its kind in Australia and with nearly 14,000 sqm of space, was to be a debut Gold Coast one for the Sydney-based Panthera.
It’s apparently willing to stay on with any new owner of the site to see the approved and ‘shovel-ready’ venture through to finality.
Last year the company paid the Sunland Group $45.8 million for the 10.5ha The Lanes site (of which only 4.2ha is usable) in a deal finalised on a Zoom meeting.
The deal took in the lake that was to be the centrepiece of the European-influenced retail resort.
Former Games sprinter Chakyl Camal, a 33-year-old who came to Australia in 2009 with $500 to his name, arrived on the Gold Coast as CEO of Panthera.
He started Panthera with friend Mario Evangelo, who today is described as principal of the group.
Chakyl moved north to oversee development and set up a Panthera office.
A leasing campaign was initiated but the success, or otherwise, of that has not been disclosed.
Chakyl, a 50-metre freestyle competitor who was born in Swaziland, represented Mozambique at the Beijing Olympics and, after training for three years in NSW, went to the London Games.
He and Mario worked together at a Sydney developer and then, via Panthera, set out to ‘marry’ digital technology to retail and other assets.
The group’s plans for The Lanes fitted Sunland’s vision of delivering a lifestyle shopping experience, rather than a rush in, buy-it-and-leave outing.
That, in the Panthera approach, meant laneways laced with cafes, restaurants, bars, and beauty, health and wellbeing venues, along with a fresh-food market hall.
The Lanes was to be built in two stages in what could be a three-year exercise.
The seven-year-old Panthera, which has a funds management arm, last year more than doubled its money when it made a $46 million exit from the Maitland Riverside Plaza in the Hunter Valley.
It was a one-time partner in the Mercato on Byron centre, sold for $120 million in 2021 by funder Wingate and Gold Coast developer Robert Badalotti.
The sale of The Lanes site to Panthera capped what had been a rather profitable venture for the Sunland Group.
It bought the 42ha The Lakes site, slipping in under the radar in 2014, for what has evolved as a steal – $61 million.
Towers have been built, a small retail-commercial centre sold, and home sites and development parcels unloaded.
The Sunland profit on the sale to Panthera was $26.3 million.
The JLL team set to market The Lanes land – Jacob Swan, Nick Willis and Ned McKendry – on Friday were not available to discuss the sale move.
A DEVINE PURCHASE
David Devine, veteran Brisbane developer and home-builder, has shelled out $26 million to double the size of a Burleigh site on which he had planned a tower called Alba.
The price was not revealed when David bought the 12-unit North Burleigh Place low-rise from receivers and unveiled plans for a bigger tower, the 24-floor Burly.
The deal could be seen as a win for the receivers – failed Victorian group Caydon had spent $17.8 million on the amalgamation exercise.
AGENT’S NEW PROPERTY
Troy Dowker, an agent whose been thriving in the bullish higher end of the property market, has gained a $5.5 million view over a large part of his beachfront marketing domain.
The latest Dowker abode is a three-level house, with four bedrooms and an internal lift, on the Burleigh headland and held in wife Caroline’s name.
The Dowkers have owned a property near another of Kollosche agent Troy’s domains, the Currumbin oceanfront, since 2010.
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Originally published as The Lanes Shopping Centre: Shock twist in future of Sunland-designed Mermaid Waters retail village
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