Billionaire John Van Lieshout forges ahead with Main Beach holiday home plans on Gold Coast after ‘cheap’ property purchase

Billionaire John Van Lieshout has moved into full development mode for a beachfront site he bought ‘cheap’ 11 years ago.

JOHN Van Lieshout, billionaire two times over, has moved into full development mode at a beachfront property that cost him a ‘cheap’ $9.01 million 11 years ago.

The founder of Super A-Mart has demolished a 1930s beach-house on the Main Beach Pde site and what might well be purely a holiday home is coming out of the ground.

There’s been speculation that a multi-level apartment building is on the way.

Not so. The ‘structure’ will be a tri -level house and it will sit between two towers – Hibiscus to the north and, across a laneway, a Brian Heran-planned tower to the south.

And why was his Main Beach property ‘cheap’?

Queensland rich lister John Van Lieshout. Picture: Mark Calleja

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The term largely is a reference to the 963sq m double-lot’s price history but also to the land’s value lifting in the wake of height limits being lifted.

The property was bought for $13.45 million in 2006 by a couple who had sold another beachfront property along the street.

The GFC came along and they twice tried to sell if by auction, knocking back a $14.5 million bid in 2008.

The couple, Damian and Cleo Conrad, called in an auctioneer again the following year and the best bid elicited was $9 million.

That’s until John stepped in at the last minute with a $10,000 ‘raise’ and had the property knocked down to him.

3551 Main Beach Pde before it was demolished. Photo: Steve Holland

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The Conrads were hammered on their investment but still had happy memories of Main Beach Pde – they made a $6.25 million profit on their earlier holding after selling it for $11.55 million in 2006.

That 882sq m site re-sold to Harvey Norman’s Katie Page the following year for $15.5 million and today is home to her boutique M3565 apartment building.

The new Baden Goddard-designed Van Lieshout home will have basement parking, two living levels, and a partial third level.

Its predecessor, an iconic home built more than 80 years ago, served as a holiday home for the Van Lieshouts.

John Van Lieshout started Super-A-Mart in 1970 and sold it for $500 million in 2005.

The home’s purchase was far from John’s only Gold Coast property dalliance.

He controlled a double beachfront lot in Mermaid Beach’s Multi Millionaires’ Row, bought for $9.5 million in 2009 and home to a mansion that had been home to a string of high-profile owners, including entertainment entrepreneur Michael Edgely, bookie Terry Page, and later bankrupted milkman Ken Lacey.

The 76-year-old John razed the house and went on to offer the land as either one lot or two, eventually selling it for $7.7 million.

John, when marketing the land, admitted a loss was likely.

“I bought it just after the big bust and at the time I thought most of the pain had gone,” he said at the time.

The Coles supermarket at Southport Park Shopping Centre. The centre is one of John Van Lieshout’s Gold Coast assets.

“I thought I could make some money on it but I was wrong.

“Luckily, I don’t make too many mistakes.”

John’s a self-made success story, arriving in Australia in 1960 with his parents and a dozen brothers and sisters and heading to a Brisbane migrant camp.

He started Super-A-Mart in 1970, sold it to private equity for $500 million in 2005, and retained ownership of many of the properties.

His worth has blossomed on the back of both property investments and also via development ventures through his Unison Projects arm.

The Southport Park shopping centre, in which he has supermarket chains Woolies, Coles and Aldi as major tenants, is among his Gold Coast assets.

He also owns Southport’s Primary Health Care centre.