United Petroleum co-founder Eddie Hirsch and Daniel Faigen launch tower plan on Palm Beach site on Gold Coast
This Palm Beach property was slated for a servo until council officers shot down the plan. Now the owner is pumping up plans for a 14-level apartment tower.
Gold Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Gold Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A MAJOR fuel distributor that was planning to step on the gas at Palm Beach has taken a sharp turn in another direction – skyward.
A highway-front site bought four years ago to house a United Petroleum servo instead is set to become home to an apartment tower.
The yet-to-be named building will be undertaken by Melbourne-based H & F Property, a group initiated by United’s joint founder, Eddie Hirsch, and family and who partnered with property lawyer Daniel Faigen.
The seven-year-old property company apparently has other ambitions near the Gold Coast’s southern beaches.
MORE ON THE QT
33 apartment tower Natura tagged for Burleigh’s Esplanade
Hotel could be in works for Main Beach ahead of development deal
Poppas low-rise in Main Beach tipped to sell for $10 million
It’s believed that the cashed-up group is ready to buy on short settlement terms but might be waiting for sellers to be infused with a dose of realism when it comes to their price expectations.
Meanwhile, the Eddie Hirsch camp has spent more than $5 million on a site on the western side of the highway at Mermaid Beach.
That’s raises the question – is it for a servo or for another apartment building?
In Palm Beach terms, H & F, or Hirsch and Faigen, isn’t the only newcomer smitten with the idea of building apartments near the beach.
A company linked to long-time Sydney lawyer Miles Barclay has ambitions of developing a nine-level building on land, like the H & F site, on the eastern side of the Gold Coast Highway.
MORE BUSINESS NEWS
Green light for Movie World takeover
Coast borrowers losing thousands to swindlers
New Coast tower hits the mark with investment banker
Barclays World Travel, of which 74-year-old Miles is the sole director, could get a green light for the project later this year.
By then, H and F hopes to be marketing its tower, which is approved and will go on a 1644sq m site bought for $3.85 million and which also has a Seventeenth Ave frontage.
The group is not short on substance, with its Victorian assets ranging from a thoroughbred racing stud to a Yarra Valley winery, a shopping centre, and a Melbourne office tower.
Its Palm Beach tower is to go on a site that was part of a portfolio of Palm Beach property assembled by former Supreme Court judge John Byrne and brother Robert over a period of 30 years.
It was bought with the intention of making it home to a United Petroleum servo, the argument being that there wasn’t one on the eastern side of the highway at Palm Beach.
In fact, the development application lodged in 2017 contended that the site was on part of a 7.9km strip on the beach side of the highway that wasn’t served by a servo.
Unfortunately, council officers were far from united over the United plan, citing concerns about its impact on the surrounding residential area.
The upshot was that by April 2018 the development application was withdrawn and other options were pursued for the land.
The result was the tower route, with a building with 14 floors, 78 apartments and a cafe at its base given the green light.
It will sit behind the four-level Surfers Horizons, a 30-year-old building with 19 apartments and on an absolute beachfront 2568sq m site.
The H and F team will be hoping that the project, like the Hirsch Hill Estate’s gold-medal 2015 Yarra Valley Cabernet Sauvignon drop, will be a winner.
Originally published as United Petroleum co-founder Eddie Hirsch and Daniel Faigen launch tower plan on Palm Beach site on Gold Coast