Former headquarters of failed Gold Coast developer John Marshall to make way for 11-storey tower

The apartment tower development wave that’s sweeping Burleigh Heads appears to have no limit - but it comes with one regret. FIND OUT THE DETAILS

THE apartment tower development wave that’s sweeping Burleigh Heads appears to have no limit, as a fellow called John Marshall ruefully might be finding out.

John’s a property developer and investor whose business was demolished during the GFC.

Now he appears set to see his former corporate headquarters go the same way.

The two-level Burleigh Heads office building that housed his No Limit group for a decade is earmarked for a 12-level apartment tower.

That will come as no surprise to John but he might well regret that he’s not developing the tower.

Artist impression of Kailua, a mixed-use tower on the Gold Coast Highway at Burleigh Heads set to replace a two-level office building.

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That’s because he apparently had similar ambitions for the site before the GFC hit and was working on a tower scheme.

His nondescript former HQ’s on a site passed by thousands of cars daily.

It’s set to be the latest in a list of properties that already have been bowled, or are on the knockdown agenda, as the oceanside suburb blossoms.

The list ranges from blocks of apartments to the Fish House restaurant and a large part of the Old Burleigh Theatre Arcade.

The ex-Marshall building is across the road from the Swell resort and fronts Tweed St, a short feeder strip that runs beside the Gold Coast Highway at the eastern end of central Burleigh.

A proposed alternate design of the Old Burleigh arcade redevelopment

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Robkel, linked to Palm Beach resident David Roberts, in 2019 bought the property for $6.7 million – or $4 million more than the previous sale, nine years earlier, by receivers to John’s No Limit.

David, like John, clearly was of a mind that the 1103sq m site’s future lay in something more substantial than a two-floor office building – its zoning under the latest town plan is medium-density residential.

He’s come up with a plan for a tower with 55 apartments spread over 11 floors, a rooftop recreation area, and three basements.

The yet-to-be-approved tower, tagged Kailua, will have five apartments a floor, ranging from 74sq m to 143sq m — the most spacious one is on the northeast corner.

This building is the former corporate headquarters of John Marshall’s No Limit group.

The site has Rudd Park and a caravan park on its eastern side and, despite the Burleigh Beach Tower being 16 metres away, will have ocean, headland and hinterland views.

Apartments in Kailua, designed by Plus Architecture, won’t be quite in the price or size class of two luxury boutique towers that are being built downhill from it fronting Goodwin Tce.

Prices in the Norfolk and Luna towers, in which the bulk of apartments take up entire floors, have averaged north of $3 million.

The price Robkel’s David has paid for the Kailua site, $6075 a square metre, reflects its location back from the ocean.

That’s more than half the $12,747 a square metre that Brisbane developer Forme paid for the Norfolk land, which is directly across Goodwin Tce from the beach.

Meanwhile, developer John has kept a low profile since receivers appointed by St George bank came knocking on the door of his No Limit group in 2010.

His Gold Coast activities had included plans for a $100 million estate within the Hope Island Resort on land that was ‘lost’ during No Limit’s demise.

The other interests of John, who had sponsored a V8 Supercar team, ranged from storage units to a Southport shopping centre, and estates at Robina and Ipswich.

A couple of years back he reportedly was back in the property game, with an interest in residential land at Coffs Harbour.