The Strand: Coolangatta shopping centre up for sale

One of the Gold Coast’s key shopping centres, sitting just metres from the beach, is on the market and its buyer will get an income of up to $12m a year.

Fancy a property with a 200-metre frontage to one of the best beaches in Australia, one which delivers income of $12 million a year?

If so, you’ll need to have to be an investor with a rather fat wallet or an institution with cash aplenty.

The property’s The Strand retail centre overlooking Greenmount beach at Coolangatta and it’s up for grabs.

The sale of the what’s being termed a lifestyle property could emerge as the biggest the briny-fronting suburb has seen, potentially coming in at well north of $100 million.

Any new owner will be able to celebrate at the adjoining Coolangatta Hotel but they won’t be the landlord – it’s not part of the sell-off.

The centre, which is topped by two apartment towers, is a legacy of developer Pat Zarro, who went bust in the early 1990s.

The Strand at Coolangatta. Picture: Supplied

It was something of a showpiece in his career, so much so that he named it Showcase on the Beach.

These days the three-level The Strand is a major ‘strand’ in a property portfolio of a group which had its foundations as a builder in the Northern Territory nearly 70 years ago.

The Vogliotti family transferred its business to Sydney in 1976 and today operates under the Vinta Group label.

‘Showcase’, as it was then, bought for $22 million in 2005 via an aptly named Vinta entity, Surfrider Investments.

It’s prospered since then, thanks to major spending by Surfrider, which has included a $60 million transformation that started in 2013.

The move, in tandem with a name change, saw Woolworths arrive as the major tenant and a 300-seat dining precinct set up overlooking the beach on the first floor.

Today’s tenants include surfwear giant Boardriders, Timezone and family cinema group Cinebar.

The Strand’s 93 per cent leased and is tipped to net a new owner nearly $13 million when the vacant space is filled.

No reason has been given for the move to sell the property but it’s hit the market at a time when there’s a healthy appetite for major retail centres.

The marketing job’s been given to one of the big players when it comes to selling such assets, the international JLL group.

A three-man team of Nick Willis, Sam Linden and Sam Hatcher has hit the road chasing interest from would-be buyers, including offshore investors.

The Strand at Coolangatta. Picture: Supplied

Any buyer will be able to view The Strand physically from all angles – apart from fronting Marine Pde and the beach, it backs on to Coolangatta’s main street and has two other street frontages.

Seller Vinta has blossomed into a group that has undertaken property development projects and investments involving infrastructure, residential, hotel and major retail and commercial assets across Australia and New Zealand.

It’s moved the Cooly hotel into its hospitality arm, Waymark Hotels, which has pubs throughout rural Queensland and also has one on Thursday Island.

The Strand and the Cooly both have plenty of what could be called in-house customers – residents of the Points North and Ocean Plaza towers that sit above the centre.

Pasquale ‘Pat’ Zarro spent around $20 million in the 80s to assemble the site for his Showcase.

It wasn’t his only landmark Gold Coast delivery.

He also was the developer of the Australia Fair retail centre which overlooks the Broadwater in Southport but, unlike Showcase, he did not include towers above it.

BUYER STILL UNKNOWN

Artist impression of the Golden Shores Holiday Club at Labrador on the Gold Coast.

Labrador’s Golden Shores Holiday Club timeshare property, on land approved for a 25-floor tower, has been sold but wraps are being kept on the buyer and the price.

The three-level building, developed by the Dainford group nearly 40 years ago, has 16 units and sits on a 1546 sqm site that looks over the Broadwater to the seaway.

Property sources say the sale is to a Gold Coast party at a price approaching $9 million and that the deal does settle for some time.

The site was put on the market after the owners of its 1632 timeshare intervals all agreed to sell, paving the way for the property to be put under one title and sold.

GALLAGHER GOES SHOPPING

Dean Gallagher

Dean Gallagher, the developer behind the Drift tower which is underway at Main Beach, appears to have done some ‘small’ shopping nearby.

He’s reportedly the fellow who rocked up at the auction of a tiny site next to the new Monaco tower on Main Beach Pde and paid $6.5 million to become the owner.

The 407 sqm holding, on the corner of Cunningham Ave, is home to a low-rise unit block that’s nearly 60 years old.

Dean is aiming high with the 29-floor Drift, with the tag on the two-floor penthouse earlier reported to be $18 million.

He assembled his own team to construct the tower after builder GCB went bust.

LOFTY PLANS

Paul Accornero, top man in the Asia-Pacfic region for international coffee-machine maker De’Longhi, and wife Susan have lifted their ambitions in Mermaid Beach’s Multi-Millionaires’ Row.

They own the two villas that make up beachfront building Schern Haus, which has three levels sitting above a basement.

The Accorneros have set out to add another storey to the ‘Shern’, which is on a 405 sqm Hedges Ave lot abutting the Mermaid surf club carpark.

The move, if it gets a planning tick-off, will take the building’s height to 13.5 metres, which is below the allowed 15-metres but in excess of the permitted three levels.

Schern Haus, built by former Tasmanian car dealers Warren von Bibra and Cees Hendriks in the late 90s, will get a timely refurbishment under the Accornero plan.

Originally published as The Strand: Coolangatta shopping centre up for sale