Millionaire’s row legal stoush as residents fight $50m marina hotel plan

An action group who have been fighting against a $50 million hotel proposal at a Queensland marina have fired the latest legal salvo in their battle with council.

Architectural renders for Kindred’s six-storey apartment block of 54 units, which was refused by council in August 2019.

An action group who have been fighting against a $50 million hotel proposal at a marina on a millionaire’s row north of Brisbane for six years have fired the latest legal salvo in their battle with council.

Last Wednesday the Newport Action Group Inc (NAG) filed an appeal in the Planning and Environment Court against the Moreton Bay Regional Council’s November 8 decision to give preliminary approval for a marina to be used as a hotel, bar or short-term accommodation.

Newport Marina. Source: Council submission.

According to the appeal notice, the NAG submits the “scale and intensity” of the development of a hotel, bars, restaurants and short-term accommodation by JKindred and DB Pty Ltd is “inappropriate for the land”.

JKindred and DB Pty Ltd is owned by 37-year-old Josh Kindred from Newport as well as David, 48, and Megan Pearse, from Hawthorne, in Brisbane’s inner southeast.

The company is a co-respondent to the appeal.

Joshua Kindred, CEO of Kindred Group. Picture: Facebook

“There is substantial community opposition, from nearby residents, to the non-marine industry Code Assessable Uses,” the appeal notice states.

The development application was subject to 342 properly made submissions with 304 opposing the development, the notice states.

The action group also submits that there is “no planning need” for the non-marine industry code assessable uses on the land, accessed from Griffith Rd, and surrounded by canal front homes in an estate created in the late 1970s.

Kindred Group owns the Newport Marina, and also has an arm in the independent real estate business and a development arm.

The marina currently consists of 210 vessel berths, an open air carpark and a single-storey commercial building which contains boat sales offices, a fishing clubhouse and laundry and freight forwarding, the appeal notice states.

NAG submits that the proposed development lowers the level of assessment for future development for code assessable uses to code assessment rather than impact assessment, which “unacceptably” removes the community’s submission rights in relation to a broad range of uses of the land.

Architectural renders for Kindred’s six-storey apartment block of 54 units, which was refused by council in August 2019.

They submit that the code acceptable uses would result in loss of marine-industry zoned land.

In a statement published after they gave the green light to the development, council said “the preliminary approval for a material change of use of the land does not authorise development to proceed”.

“Subsequent approvals would then be required for the council to authorise any development to proceed,” Moreton Bay Regional Council stated.

No date has been set for hearing.

An earlier application to build a six-storey apartment block of 54 units was refused by council in August 2019.