Resort owner reveals personal connection to newest project

An illustrious Mission Beach resort that holds a special meaning for its owners has reopened after it was left to rack and ruin.

Virtual renders of the restaurant at the newly reopened Elandra Resort in Mission Beach. Picture: Supplied

An illustrious Mission Beach resort that holds a special meaning for its owners has reopened after it was left to rack and ruin three years ago.

Queensland entrepreneurs and Bedarra Island Resort owners Kerri-Ann and Sam Charlton reopened the Elandra Resort in Mission Beach on December 1 with 20 villas priced at $475 a night, a fine-dining restaurant and bar, luxury spa, gym and tennis court.

Ms Charlton said the redesign had been a labour of love.

“We’re hoping it will become the best resort on the east coast of Australia,” Ms Charlton said.

“We’ve put a lot of effort into the design and redoing everything, it’s been 18 months of very hard work.

“Sam and I are very much about relaxed barefoot luxury, I think everyone will be comfortable here,” she said.

The resort, which was first opened in 2008 by the legendary Grace Jones, will see another 12 high end villas, each with a private pool, opened within the next six months.

“We could’ve kept it closed and got it done sooner but we just wanted to get it open, there’s been so much interest from the public,” Ms Charlton said.

“So we’re doing a very soft opening.

“We’ll look at doing a grand opening early next year,” she teased.

Artist render of the bar at the newly reopened Elandra Resort in Mission Beach. Picture: Supplied

The resort’s restaurant and bar will be open to the public, with a former Bedarra Island Resort executive chef at helm.

“We really wanted to create a destination restaurant, people coming to stay because they’ve heard about the food,” Ms Charlton said.

She added she had always known they would one day own the property, but first had to convince her husband.

“It’s always been somewhere really special for me,” she said.

“When Sam was first courting me twenty years ago or so he took me to the Elandra and that’s when I fell in love with it,” Ms Charlton said.

“I’ve sort of been nagging for the last six years, I’ve wanted to buy it for a long time.”

She said she knew they had made the right decision when she discovered an earring belonging to her in the Elandra safe from a stay twelve years prior.

“You wouldn’t believe it, there’s a huge safe at Elandra, so big we couldn’t move it, we finally managed to get it open and inside was an envelope with my name on it from 2011 with my earring inside.

“I said to Sam if that wasn’t meant to be, I don’t know what was.”

Ms Charlton said the Elandra would compliment their other offerings, with helicopter flights to the luxury villas on Bedarra Island flying out from the Mission Beach property.

“It’s a nice synergy between the two,” she said.

The hotel magnate said she and her husband were excited to be a part of the redevelopment of the area after the fallout of the failed Mayfair 101 project.

“I think Mission Beach is going to move ahead,” she said.

“It was a real slap in the face to this area, I thought it was shameful what happened to a lot of people.

“We just genuinely love the area, we have so much fun here.”

Originally published as Resort owner reveals personal connection to newest project