Opinion: Why Sheraton 21-storey high-rise should go ahead in Hervey Bay

Too many are holding on to a Hervey Bay that no longer exists with no regard for the consequences of toxic NIMBYism in a city where the wrong kind of growth already risks ruining paradise, writes Jessica Grewal.

‘We don’t want to become another Gold Coast’, the naysayer’s shriek the moment any kind of high-rise on Hervey Bay’s Esplanade is proposed.

The NIMBY blinkers are so firmly fastened we can’t see beyond them or separate the good, well-designed developments from the bad even when it’s a city-changing proposal like the $445million, 21-storey Hervey Bay Esplanade Resort.

As newly and re-elected councillors prepare to vote on this project next month, they and the people of the Fraser Coast should be under no illusion that this is the single most important decision to be made this term and likely, for many more to come.

This is not only because it is the tallest and grandest in scale but also the generational impact it will have on our city’s economic prosperity and the message it will send to investors around the globe.

Too many of those opposed are holding on to a Hervey Bay which already no longer exists despite the fact that it is their children and grandchildren who will suffer the consequences of their toxic NIMBYism.

A look at the real Hervey Bay, away from beachfront coffee shops and the walls of gated retirement complexes exposes inconvenient truths.

Sheraton at Hervey Bay artist impressions

Boat Harbour Drive and the shopping centre precinct is already a traffic nightmare but despite the rat race the low-income population cannot support the retail and hospitality industry as big-name franchises come and leave Stockland, close on the Esplanade and more than a dozen popular restaurants remain on the market.

Thousands drawn to the area for its comparatively low prices to other coastal cities and the migration of families of Maryborough jail inmates has put pressure on a community which already had higher than average low-socio challenges leading to unenviable youth and general crime rates in a city now referred to in police ranks as “Inala by the sea”.

Social media commentators can set up petitions at markets, post images which wrongly suggest the proposal is for a monstrous cube-shaped grey build when really, while it is undisputedly huge, it seems to be the best possible version of something of this scale with the six storey hotel component on the Esplanade and then a large recreation deck which pushes the remaining 15 residential storeys further back to the Freshwater St end of the block.

Sheraton at Hervey Bay artist impressions

They can say ‘think of the turtles’ (because any beachfront lighting on the Queensland coast can impact nesting – something which is addressed in the development application) while ignoring the risks of urban sprawl and hundreds of hectares continuing to be cleared for housing estates, displacing and destroying wildlife.

They can say density vs sprawl is more sustainable but ‘only at 6-8 storeys max’ even though the numbers will never work - they might on the Gold or Sunshine Coasts but not on the Fraser Coast when building costs have doubled and rates are through the roof because there’s fewer ratepayers and a wider area to service.

Developers are not going to spend the amount of money needed for city-changing projects on non-negotiable height restrictions if the density doesn’t make a profit. It’s why so many ‘coming soon’ development billboards signs have weathered over the years or disappeared completely without a stake ever having been put in the ground.

They can say a five-star resort and its 400-plus residential units will only house the rich and won’t be an answer to easing the housing crisis even though many professionals, retirees and young people currently occupying rentals will want to move into a development like this, freeing up more affordable housing.

They can scoff at the clearly cashed up developer’s propaganda campaign featuring celebrity landscaper Jamie Durie (which has frankly done more to put our piece of paradise on the map than anything the local tourism board has produced in recent memory) who is set to design a deep-dive experience on site.

And they can accuse anyone who doesn’t think the same way as somehow being in the developer’s pocket (this author and her real estate agent husband have lived in this region for decades and have never met the developer or have any link to the project).

But they are damning a region which for too long has teetered on the brink of economic change only to fall short.

While cringe-worthy the ‘newlyweds and nearly-deads’ slogan is as applicable now as it was when it was coined in the early 2000s boom.

We might have grown but our attitudes and bank balances have not and when you add the additional stresses of a cost-of-living crisis …

A budget backpacker hostel and a string of derelict, vacant buildings will be demolished if the Hervey Bay Esplanade Resort goes ahead.

And while we eagerly await Jetstar’s direct flights to Melbourne from next month – our chance of holding onto the service depends on creating draw cards (like a resort by the largest hotel group in the world with 223 guest rooms) to get enough bums on seats.

Direct flights introduced in those early 2000s heydays have fluctuated since.

Jetstar had originally operated direct flights to Sydney and canned them for a number of years, only resuming after Virgin bailed during Covid and showed no sign of re-establishing routes to this region.

Qantas tested direct flights to Sydney and pulled them within a year.

And while record numbers of kids are being raised in this region and our university is expanding – we still can’t keep or house them here.

Sheraton Hervey Bay – The world’s largest luxury hotel group could be coming to Hervey Bay after signing an agreement confirming its intention to operate the proposed Hervey Bay Esplanade Resort.

A recent presentation to the Fraser Coast Property Industry Association by demographer Simon Kuestenmacher painted a bleak picture of what lies ahead if this pattern of young professionals out and elderly residents in continues – effectively we’ll have hospital wards and homes full of people who need care and nobody to do the caring or specialists to diagnose and treat their conditions.

The path to this misery is already evident at Hervey Bay Hospital where this author recently spent two weeks for knee surgery.

While the incredible understaffed nurses and doctors are nothing short of heroic, the realities of having more people over 65 than any other region in Queensland was clear with elderly patients filling the emergency department for falls, dementia patients – one of whom had been there for more than 40 days – effectively being babysat by nurses because retirement homes could not take them back and just three nurses available to be rostered in a ward with more than 35 patients in pain.

An upgrade with more beds is on the way but who is going to staff them?

Of course, a single development is not a silver bullet for every threat, but one of this scale can be the catalyst for change.

Councillors may have no control over state and federally funded health and housing departments, but they play a powerful role in tipping these demographic and economic scales by voting in favour of projects which by nature attract skilled professionals, medical specialists and young people looking for trendy entertainment options to a city which has evolved enough to offer the luxury lifestyle and can support shops, restaurants and direct flights from other major centres.

The building block taking in the old Reef Motel, nightclub and The Hub units has been boarded up and closed for a number of years but would be replaced with the Hervey Bay Esplanade Resort.

Most importantly, the council can still show what it will and won’t accept.

This development application has ticked every box it possibly could so as to turn the 21-storey elephant in the room into a squeaking mouse – setting a standard which shuts down the risk of a cheap and nasty high-rise free-for-all but opening the window just enough to let the luxury light in.

One landmark development in the heart of the Torquay tourist precinct combined with a focus on similarly well-thought-out developments at the marina and CBD ends of the city does not a Gold Coast make.

It is also perhaps fitting that such a monumental decision for Hervey Bay will be made at a meeting in Maryborough – a city with which, for better and for worse, it is forever entwined.

The Heritage City too has been on the verge of a renaissance largely thanks to community legends who have led the construction of quirky Insta-worthy attractions like the Cistern Chapel and world-class war memorials and private business owners like a Brisbane pub-loving pair who are busily renovating not one but four of the city’s historic hotels.

But any real revival of that CBD cannot be sustained simply by locals on low incomes and drop-ins.

There’s a reason the hotels and shops were closed for so long.

A landmark "twin towers" resort and residential development, the biggest of its kind ever to be proposed on the Hervey Bay Esplanade, is before the Fraser Coast Regional Council.

If Maryborough families are to contribute rates to the council’s $100million-plus Hervey Bay headquarters, constantly travel 30 minutes to access services and businesses which have moved to the “double-the-size” neighbouring city they should be enjoying elite day trippers who have the cash to splash in their unique riverside town with its rich history and arts and culture draw cards which perfectly complement the whale-watching, island and beach-centred offerings on the coast.

So no, we don’t want to become ‘another Gold Coast’.

But we can and must become a better Bay.

Let July 24 be the beginning.

– Jessica Grewal is the Deputy State News Director for NewsCorp’s regional Queensland titles. Before being elevated to this role in 2022 she was the editor of the Fraser Coast Chronicle and still lives in Hervey Bay with her husband, Tim.