Cairns property investor Alex Sekler cancels Buderim resort development approval
A controversial bid to transform the side of Buderim with a $100m resort has been quashed with the new owner of the site cancelling an approval for a five-star resort project.
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The new owners of a Buderim hillside mansion once earmarked for a controversial $100m resort have officially scrapped the luxury project.
Cairns property tycoon Alex Sekler applied to Sunshine Coast Council this month to have the resort development application at Box St, Buderim, cancelled.
Mr Sekler purchased Malumba Estate at 24 Box St in September, 2021 for $17.1m, where Sunshine Coast Council had approved former owners Heidi Meyer and Kim Carroll’s five-star Badderam resort project.
Badderam was touted to feature 111 hotel suites, restaurants, conference facilities, a wellness spa and a rail car access to cabins down the escarpment across the 4ha block.
It would have been the Sunshine Coast’s first new resort in 40 years and Buderim’s largest ever development.
But concerns had been raised about the site’s rural zoning as well as vegetation clearing, cuts into the southern Buderim escarpment, landslip risks and building heights.
Ms Meyer told this publication when she listed the property for sale in December, 2021 that she hoped to attract an owner capable of making the Badderam resort a reality.
Mr Sekler purchased the home – Malumba Estate and Ms Meyer’s adjoining Aquila Estate for a combined $20.5m.
Property records show Mr Carroll and Ms Meyer paid $2.3m for Malumba Estate at 24 Box St, back in March, 2014, and Aquila Retreat at 21 Box St was purchase for $2.35m in April, 2017 by Kim Carroll Investments Pty Ltd.
The council approved the proposal in April, 2018 and gave Ms Meyer and Mr Carroll a two-year deadline to have an investor and a signed hotel management agreement.
In March, 2020, councillors voted to extend the development approval by four years, against the advice of its own planning team and an independent hotel expert.
Divisional councillor Ted Hungerford voted against the resort approval on both occasions.
Mr Hungerford said it was up to the new owners what they wanted to do with the property.
The application to cancel the development approval was made almost 13 months after Mr Sekler’s purchase.
Meanwhile Mr Sekler has expanded his Buderim property portfolio with the most recent addition in March, 2022 being an eight-bedroom home on 7.3ha at Cogill Rd, Buderim, for $9m.
He also owns land at 22 and 9 Box St.
It remains to be seen what Mr Sekler plans to do with the vacant blocks at Box St.
Mr Sekler and his wife Violetta were approached for comment but could not be reached by deadline.
Ms Meyer was also approached for comment.
Town planners Project Urban lodged the cancellation application on behalf of Mr Sekler.
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