Gold Coast development: Billionaire developer Bob Ell considering Main Beach tower

A billionaire Gold Coast property developer appears to have ambitions for a beachfront tower in Main Beach.

BILLIONAIRE-plus developer and Budds Beach resident Bob Ell might have beachfront tower ambitions.

That question’s arisen in the wake of Bob, the owner of potentially more than 10,000 housing lots, popping up in control of three apartments in six-title Main Beach building Ocean Resort.

It seems the ‘holding’ qualifies him for a place on the body corporate and that the wily developer’s perhaps going to angle for redevelopment of the building’s site.

The resort was built by a Japanese businessman in the 90s as an exclusive venue for celebrities visiting the Gold Coast.

The Ocean Resort, Main Beach, pictured in 1997.

The property has surged in appeal to developers in the wake of beachfront land prices riding an ever-higher wave.

Ocean Resort is on a 1113 sqm site on the corner of Main Beach Pde and Breaker St and has a 30-metre beach frontage.

Across the road, on the southern side of Breaker St, is ageing low-rise Four Corners.

It is on a 787 sqm site which has been amalgamated at a cost of $17.725 million, or $22,522 a square metre.

That rate would make the Ocean Resort holding worth $25 million.

Leda group boss Bob, in tandem with wife Bridget, took possession of the smallest Ocean Resort apartment, a two-bedder with minimal views, for $500,000 in January.

On the same day the Ells settled a somewhat larger buy in the building, a three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment that cost $4.75 million.

Both buys were from Toowoomba resident John McGahan, who acquired them in 2008.

It seems most unlikely that Bob, the man behind the looming massive Cobaki and Kings Forest estates, and Bridget will become residents in Ocean Resort.

Only 18 months ago they bought a $22.5 million ‘sandcastle’ fronting the ocean at Mermaid Beach – an oceanfront home spanning three levels and with five bedrooms.

The couple, who have four children, apparently treat it as a holiday home – their principal residence is a giant abode spanning multiple lots on the riverfront at Budds Beach.

Seventy-seven-year-old Bob, who started his working life as an apprentice carpenter, is no stranger to going ‘up’ in the property game.

Ocean Resort is on an absolute beachfront site.

He’ll be able to draw on tower-building experience gained in both residential and office fields in Sydney should his ultimate Main Beach goal be to build a high-rise.

Any tilt at gaining full ownership of Ocean Resort will not be easy, going by another property fellow’s experience.

Two years ago Hayman Homes founder Steve Anderson had visions of convincing the owners to sell, scuttling the building and developing a luxury 20-floor tower with whole-floor apartments and of ‘rock star’ standard.

Another party was to both fund and build the tower.

Steve had been an owner in Ocean Resort since 2018 and persuaded all but one of the other owners to get aboard with his plan.

They each would have received cash and an apartment in the new tower.

One owner, who reportedly had a rather brittle relationship with a fellow owner, wasn’t a starter.

Last year Steve, having decided that the exercise was all too hard, sold his apartment for $2.7 million and left the building, with Bob apparently now in control of the residence.

Ocean Resort was developed by a company controlled by Eijiro Okuuchi but his planned venue for celebrities didn’t have legs for long.

The Ocean Resort apartments were put on the market in 1998 and sold for between $200,000 (for the small one) and $614,000, with the penthouse selling for $1.44 million.

The penthouse, which spans 600 sqm, re-sold for $4.95 million in 2008.