Downsized 17-floor tower planned adjacent to HOTA Green Bridge

A property group appears to have decided a Gold Coast location is where it can make its mark, albeit a smaller one than originally planned.

THE cautious Citimark property group appears to have decided that Chevron Island, at last, has become a green pasture upon which it can make its mark, albeit a smaller one than originally planned.

Citimark six years ago gained approval for a 23-level tower on a site adjacent to the ‘green bridge’, the pedestrian gateway to the new Home of the Arts (HOTA).

The tower never happened and group’s ambitions, like the market, have changed – it’s shrunk the building and also the site it will sit on.

Artist impression of 2 Mawarra Street, Chevron Island.

New design Mirador, if approved, will consist of 17 floors above a two-level podium, will have far fewer apartments and will have no basement parking.

The site, originally 2710 sqm, will be reduced by 506 sqm by excluding land fronting Anembo Drive.

Citimark’s obviously confident that the green light will come for the smaller tower, which is the subject of a ‘minor change’ application to the city council.

Homes on its land, at one stage used by squatters, have been bowled.

A marketing suite is being set up not far away in Chevron’s main street, Thomas Drive.

The change of heart is an about-face by the Brisbane group, headed by Angus Johnson and Robert Pullar, and which is planning a major Coomera riverfront estate.

Last October, Citimark put its site on the market, citing what was termed an unsolicited approach from a buyer.

Artist impression of 2 Mawarra Street, Chevron Island.

It’s believed that ‘buyer’ was Brisbane retirement village operator Aura Holdings.

It was suggested during a marketing campaign that the L-shaped site could be split into two parcels, which is the tack Citimark is taking.

The 2015 approval was for a building with 164 apartments, 470 sqm of ground-level retail, and basement parking.

Mirador will have just 70 apartments, 98 sqm of shop or cafe space, and above-ground parking.

The ‘full’ Citimark holding, on the doorstep of the Chevron retail strip, was bought for $3.75 million in 2014 and, in the planned reduced size, will have frontages to Mawarra St and Stanhill Drive.

Its northern boundary is to a property bought by a Chinese group which is planning a 19-floor tower, Isola, in a project which will front Thomas Drive and include an adjoining five-floor retail-office building.

CAP Chevron, owned by a fund from steel city Hangzhou in north-eastern China, paid $11.5 million for the 1888 sqm site – considerably more than Citimark outlaid for its much bigger holding.

The Chevron site was the first of three in the Surfers area targeted seven years ago by Citimark, the others having frontages to the Gold Coast Highway and Markwell Ave in Surfers Paradise.

The developer shelved the 46-floor tower Markwell Residences project in 2019, despite selling more than 50 per cent of the apartments, because of fears some buyers might not be able to settle as a result of Chinese Government clamps on residents sending money offshore.

Plans for twin towers on the other side of the highway, on what was known as the Thrifty site, were aborted after the seller would not grant Citimark extra time to get development approval.

Meanwhile, the ‘race’ to build taller towers on Chevron could have an unlikely winner.

Sunsuper real estate investment trust Catalyst Health is firing up work on two 19-floor buildings for oldies.

The business owner and operator will be the Gold Coast’s Odyssey Health Group, a tie-up between aged-care veteran Phil Usher and accountancy firm WMS Solutions.

Originally published as Downsized 17-floor tower planned adjacent to HOTA Green Bridge