Burleigh development: Brisbane developer’s ‘Devine’ plan for 22-storey tower
This Brisbane developer, in his 74th year, is intent on joining the throng of developers targeting the Burleigh beachfront.
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AGE has not wearied the entrepreneurial spirit or appetite for Gold Coast ventures of property player David Devine.
The Brisbane developer, in his 74th year, is intent on joining the throng of developers targeting the beachfront.
His ‘divine’ plan is for a 22-level tower overlooking the ocean on The Esplanade at North Burleigh.
It’s David’s latest venture in a series of Gold Coast forays that have spanned decades and largely focused on building houses under the Devine Homes brand and on residential estates.
Why, he’s even been the landlord at the city’s No. 1 McDonald’s restaurant.
His mooted tower, tagged Alba North Burleigh, is intended to replace an older three-level block of holiday apartments.
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Whether the racehorse owner intends retaining a presence in the tower remains to be seen.
David and wife Dianne already have a beachfront abode – they spent more than $900,000 in 1991, as the market sagged, buying the ground-floor penthouse in the Aquarius building on the southern side of Surfers Paradise.
The one-time boat-builder wants to build Alba on a 1012sqm site that’s owned by the Australian Post-Tel Institute Queensland.
That’s a non-profit body that traces back to 1918 and the then Postmaster-General’s Department, which later was split into what today are Australia Post and Telstra.
The Devine Alba is intended to have 55 apartments – 40 of them with three bedrooms – and to sit above four levels of basement.
He’ll no doubt be encouraged in the belief that Alba is a project for the times after seeing the sales success of the planned Natura tower along the street.
Its 33 apartments, to go on a site occupied by the Mimi Macpherson-built Aspect on Burleigh boutique tower, sold out rapidly.
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Natura, in its first weekend on the market, achieved 25 sales.
The tower’s developer is paying $16.15 million for Aspect, which is on a 1012sqm site.
It’s yet to be revealed what the Devine camp is paying for its Alba site, which is the same size.
The price, whatever it is, will pale alongside the one that figured in his biggest Gold Coast ‘adventure’.
He bought a former Marist Brothers farm in the Currumbin Valley for $27 million in 2003, gained approvals for an estate, and sold out to the then FKP group for $75 million in 2008.
David took a commercial turn in 2004 when he bought the four-level McDonald’s building at the head of Cavill Mall for $13.1 million, selling it six years later for $12.25 million.
His listed company Devine Ltd – he went public in 1993 – bought Bundall-based body corporate manager Stewart Silver King and Burns in a $13.5 million deal 13 years ago, selling out to management three years later.
David fully exited Devine Ltd in 2010 and teamed with right-hand man Ken Woodley to form the Metro property group.
Metro went on to link with India’s Pearls group – at the time Sheraton Mirage owner and later identified as a ponzi-scheme operator – on Brisbane projects but they later parted ways.
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