Gold Coast development: Robina’s Acuity business park booming as tenancies fill up

A Gold Coast business park is booming to the tune of $121m and its developer says it’s not done yet with the giant project, which is already reshaping Robina.

THE decision by private developer Alceon to use the name Acuity for a top-shelf Gold Coast office project has emerged as visionary one, to the tune of $121 million.

That’s a figure that will grow -- Alceon’s not finished yet.

The word acuity can mean sharpness of mind or vision and time’s proven that’s just what the Sydney-based Alceon and Queensland chief Todd Pepper had when they ventured into Robina in early 2019.

They bought a slab of ‘discounted’ land – a site once tagged the Taj Mahal property.

They took a bold ‘build it and they will come’ approach to filling planned office blocks and haven’t looked back.

Three A-grade office buildings have been built and sold in the Acuity Business Park and there’s another one in the pipeline.

Accuity Business Park. Picture: Supplied.

The latest sale, an $80 million one of the two newer buildings, has been made to two funds run by the listed Charter Hall group and is expected to settle this month.

That deal comes two years after the family of seafood king the late George Raptis spent $41 million to ‘hook’ the first building, which wears the name of home-builder and major tenant Metricon.

The Alceon Robina success appears based on tenants wanting new and modern A-grade space at lower rents than in areas such as Surfers and Broadbeach, along with accessibility for staff and clients.

The Acuity project is not Alceon’s first Gold Coast foray – four years ago it completed a mixed-use venture called Brooklyn at Varsity Lakes.

Last year it widened its scope, heading to the beach to team up with Sydney’s Sammut brothers in an oceanfront Surfers project.

Things appears to be going swimmingly there, with 80 per cent of tower Coast sold at an average of $5.5 million an apartment and builder Multiplex in tow to start construction.

South of the border, Alceon grossed $10 million early this year by selling two homeparks, Chinderah Lakes and Tweed Shores, which it had owned for little more than a year.

Quentin Tod

The land that’s been a winner for Alceon at Robina is a site that was a ‘loser’ for the city council.

The council in 2010 paid $10.99 million for 9921 sqm in Robina Town Centre Drive on which it planned a new $200 million HQ, dubbed the Taj Mahal.

That plan was aborted and Alceon snaffled the land for $8 million nine years later.

Eight months ago Alceon, clearly enamoured with its success at Acuity, picked up 4040 sqm of adjoining land – again from the city council – for $3.35 million.

That site, next to the Robina train station, is earmarked for a 5000 sqm four-level building, taking the floor space across the business park to 21,000 sqm.

The two buildings bought by the Charter Hall funds will be yielding around 4.3 per cent a year when the $80 million deal settles.

One building is five levels, has the Queensland Government’s TAFE as the sole tenant, and has ‘trimmings’ such as barista, bakery, hair and beauty, gymnasium and restaurant services.

The other building is a two-level one, described as ‘sexy’ when it was unveiled, and is leased to Wise Medical.

Alceon’s decision to ‘go suburban’ with a Gold Coast business park came on the heels of success with similar ventures across Brisbane.

It embarked on the Robina project as the city had seen a dearth of new premium office buildings for a decade or so.

Since the project started the city’s office vacancy level has tumbled to below 10 per cent, which augurs well for building No. 4 at Acuity.