Grollo family makes millions on Gold Coast in February
The former patriarch of a failed building company has sold a Surfers Paradise penthouse for an eye-popping sum.
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The former patriarch of failed building company Grocon has sold a Surfers Paradise penthouse for an eye-popping sum.
A pair of Sydneysiders splashed an eye-popping $5.1m for the penthouse of the 27-year-old Moroccan building on February 28.
The penthouse was offloaded by a company solely held by Bruno Grollo, former patriarch of failed development and construction company Grocon, and jointly directed by two of his children, Adam and Leeanna.
New penthouse owners Helen and Michael Lionis have bought themselves a two-floor apartment, which includes a full-floor master bedroom with sweeping views from every room including the enormous marble bathroom.
Also a key Surfers Paradise sale last month was a full-floor apartment in the luxury beachfront Jade building settling for $5.375m on February 15.
The buyer, Adam Barnett Smith, bought himself, in the agent’s words: “the epitome of Australian beachfront living and touching the sand in one of the most exclusive positions on the Gold Coast”.
The Northcliffe Tce property features a master suite with spa and steam room, private waveless-edge heated pool on the balcony and stunning ocean views.
The seller, Victorian businessman William Lisle Nagel, registered director of a Homewares company in the UK, picked up the apartment for $3.6m in 2016.
Wealthy childcare bosses are staking their claims on some of the Gold Coast’s fanciest homes, dropping millions on high-end properties last month alone.
The biggest house sale to settle in February was on Royal Albert Cres at the Sovereign Islands, where a jaw-dropping five-bedroom mansion sold to Harmony Early Learning founder Gabriel Guifre for $8.7m.
The waterfront home, on a 725 sqm block, was advertised as a “no-expense-spared masterpiece” and boasts levels, Italian furniture, a high-end cocktail bar, home gym and cinema with a 4K projector and CinemaScope screen.
Ms Guifre, former head of Affinity Education, settled the purchase on February 28.
Previous owners and fellow Sovereign Islands residents Luca and Katrina Sanguigno are familiar sellers on Royal Albert Cres, having sold number 50 for $3.8m in 2017.
Ms Guifre is not a new neighbour on the street having settled on the sale of her former home at number 52 for $4.265m on March 8.
At the other end of the Coast, another childcare magnate splashed millions on a waterfront property, with Brisbane-based Green Leaves childcare boss Michael Hovey settling on the $6.35m purchase of a home on coveted Jefferson Lane.
The modest mid-century house occupies a plum 597 sqm plot on the beachfront, which is zoned for buildings up to 26m.
It settled on February 9, with property records listing the seller as real estate agent and former financial adviser Glenn McKean.
Back on the Sovereign Islands, Peter Hawes, a boardgame designer who has sold a Brisbane home for $15m, bought a $7.8m supersite.
The 2053sq m Regents Crt parcel involves three of the five lots in the Regents Point estate, developed by Gary Collison on the land he’s owned for more than two decades.
Mr Hawes, a doctor who is a former Australian touch football and athletics rep and these days is living at Main Beach, invented the Kayal board games, which sell internationally.
Still on the northern end of the Coast, former Dexus Property CEO and Hedges Ave resident Victor Hoog Antink sold a vast Sanctuary Cove mansion for $6.25m.
As well as collecting high-end properties, Mr Hoog Antink is an avid collector of Olympics memorabilia, with his private collection including a torch from every Summer Olympic Games since the torch relay began for Hitler’s 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
The six-bedroom, seven-bathroom home on Marive Dr East, known as “Plumeria” settled on February 15 to Nicola Dunne’s company Johnson Property Holdings, which was formerly associated with Terence Johnson.
Johnson Property had sold another mammoth mansion on the street just three months earlier, with that opulent five-bedroom, 11-bathroom waterfront home with parking for 20 cars settling for $17.7m to Gold Coast business tycoon Tony Quinn.
Commercial deals again featured strongly in the month’s highest sales, including the $8.75m settlement of a former Ampol service station on one of the city’s busiest intersections.
The 6688 sqm site at 519 Olsen Ave, at the corner of Southport-Nerang Rd, settled on February 9 to new owners Pearl Energy, who are already completing demolition and earthworks there.
The energy company, which has a service station at Pimpama, plans another one on the Olsen Ave site.
Part of the site is also rented to Goodyear Automotive on a recently-renewed five year lease.
The seller was a company directed by brothers Mark and Tony Lowe.
Also among the city’s biggest sales for February was the $10.81m purchase of a prime slice of Hope Island, approved for 172 units and 40 marina berths, by an international developer.
The 1.322ha block at 14-16 Sickle Ave, settled for $10.81m on February 14 to company Tengri Hope Island.
It is surrounded by construction sites for more than 600 apartments in three developments worth more than $400m by Aniko Group.
Tengri Hope Island is jointly directed and held by China-born Brisbane residents Ning Yang, 50, and Chuan Zhao, 39.
Sales agent, Evan Molloy of Hope Island Realty, said the buyer was an “international developer” who had big plans for the “marquee site”.
The Tengri company lists its principal place of business as a co-working space in Eight Mile Plains, while its registered office is an accountancy firm in West End.
The company declined to provide further information.
The seller, Central Point Developments, acquired the site in a mortgagee sale for $3m in 2011, four months after development approval for three buildings was granted.
The surrounding sites under development by Aniko include the 185-unit Athena project, spanning 6-8 Sickle Ave, and its 177-unit next stage at 10 Sickle Ave.
Property records show companies associated with Aniko, headed by George Mastrocostas, paid $3.5m for 8244 sqm site at 6-8 Sickle Ave in 2019 and $3.3m for 9279 sqm at 10-12 Sickle Ave in 2017.
Aniko’s 210-apartment development1 Grant Ave is across the road.
Division two councillor Wiliam Owen-Jones said any proposal for the area would be assessed on its merits against the city plan, which allows for eight-storey development in the area.
“All of the recent applications have complied with the City Plan,” he said.
“Residential units with a high density were always imagined as part of the Hope Island master plan, from the early 2000s.”
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