Garfield unit owners could be soon riding a wave of cash

The owners of the 30 apartments in an oceanfront Surfers Paradise high-rise could be riding a wave of dollars should the latest move to find a buyer come up trumps. FIND OUT WHY

THE owners of the 30 apartments in an oceanfront Surfers Paradise high-rise could be riding a wave of dollars should the latest move to find a buyer come up trumps.

The 10-level Garfield in 1967 became the Gold Coast’s first absolute beachfront tower – 11 years before hit comic strip Garfield was launched.

The Garfield Tce property’s been offered in the market by a Brisbane agency and one owner says an offer equating to $900,000 an apartment might be brewing.

A successful tilt at that figure would see $27 million change hands and shake up land values fronting the sand and the briny.

Garfield Towers at 43-49 Garfield Tce, Surfers Paradise. Picture: Jerad Williams

It would represent a square metre rate more than $1000 above the best previously achieved on the Surfers beachfront.

That’s the $15,429 a square metre being paid for Anglesea Court, a six-floor building at Garfield Tce’s southern end.

Should the Garfield sell, and be demolished, an integral part of the city’s beach history will disappear.

The building was designed in 1964 by Brisbane architect Frank Oswell, a fellow kept busy during the 1950s wool-price boom designing homes for sheep stations.

The developer was Hans Schulz who, among other things, had undertaken commercial projects in Surfers.

Jock McIlwain, who went on to engineer various canals estates, was the structural engineer.

The Garfield was completed in 1967 but only after extreme concern brought on by Cyclone Dinah and the severe damage it caused to the beachfront.

Move on to 2020 and the prospect of achieving $900,000 an apartment might look a pretty tasty one to some of today’s Garfield owners.

Six of them paid less than $100,000 for their units and another seven less than $200,000.

The last sale, according to property records, was last year when a ninth-floor apartment sold for $510,000.

The Costas name appears on, or is linked to, five apartments and Nick and Maureen Cassimatis, of Sydney suburb Killara, also are multiple owners with three apartments.

MORE NEWS

Gold Coast property: Construction begins on $74 million Flow Residences

Gold Coast State poll: Full list of 2020 Queensland election candidates

Superyachts head to COVID-safe Queensland waters

A prior effort to sell the Garfield was made in 2018 via the agency headed by another of the owners, Bob Rollington of First National Surfers Paradise.

The target then apparently was $30 million or more and, despite lots of interest, no deal transpired.

The Garfield’s attraction to developers appears to be more than just the 1619sqm site, which spans 43 to 49 Garfield Tce and has a generous 40-metre frontage to the beach.

The land’s appeal is embellished by there being little prospect of a tower climbing skyward slam bang next door.

There is parkland on the southern side of the Garfield and the Northcliffe surf club on the northern side.

The job of getting a deal on the Garfield over the line might well prove a challenging one -- it’s not a case of negotiating over a single packaged offering where the owners are in unison.

The agency offering the tower in the market has indicated any would-be buyer has to talk turkey to each owner individually.

That means that if one or more of the owners can’t successfully be wooed with dollars, a deal won’t be possible.