Gold Coast property: Geordie Whitcombe and Marcus Dore sell six service stations to APN Convenience for $59m

Two Gold Coast property players who have been “motoring” have every reason to be happy chappies – instead of paying at the pumps, the pumps have paid them, and handsomely.

TWO Gold Coast property players who have been “motoring” have every reason to be happy chappies – instead of paying at the pumps, the pumps have paid them, and handsomely.

Geordie Whitcombe and Marcus Dore have had their development funds topped up – to the tune of $59m.

They’ve succumbed to a tap on the shoulder from an institutional buyer and sold six 7-Eleven anchored service stations.

The money appears destined to fuel a new development burst by the pair, who operate through the Bluepoint group.

They walked away from servo projects in 2017 and took a residential bent at Palm Beach.

Since then they’ve embarked on four projects, all sellouts, worth $120m.

Elysium Central.

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They’ve motored down a smooth road since they met in 2009 – three years prior to setting up Bluepoint on what has been described as “the smell of an oil rag”.

The Kiwi-born Geordie, 38, was working for Woolworths as a development manager and oversaw the warehouses built for the ill-fated Masters chain in Queensland.

Marcus, 46-year-old son of property identity Ian Dore, was at development group Tipalea Partners, which built a retail centre at Pimpama.

Their first servo project was Elysium Central, fronting the Pacific Highway at Carrara and which, as well as a 7-Eleven store, included four takeaway outlets.

The Elysium Rd site had housed The Old Village Bakehouse, which was gutted by fire in 2011.

Sea Palm Beach.

The Bluepoint pair went on to build another 11 such projects in southeast Queensland, along with one at Mackay.

Bluepoint also dipped into residential waters, developing nearly 160 townhouses in three Brisbane projects, and they also built a childcare centre in the city’s Pallara suburb.

It seems love affairs with the beach and the Gold Coast lifestyle drew them to target Palm Beach four years ago and offices at the base of their debut venture, Sea in Seventh Ave, have become the Bluepoint HQ.

The six servos that the partners have sold had been held for four years or more and the “tap on the shoulder” wasn’t the first from would-be buyers.

Marcus Dore and Eva Milic.

The $59m tilt came from the APN Convenience retail investment trust, which itself is being targeted by Melbourne fund manager Dexus.

The sale included one Gold Coast servo, at Upper Coomera, and the six-pack was sold on an average yield of 5.5 per cent.

That’s far tighter than the 7.05 per cent yield a buyer achieved when he bought the nearly new Elysium Central servo from Bluepoint for $6.3m in 2014.

The Bluepointers apparently decided a few months back that they’d “dined” rather well in the Palm Beach market and it was time to focus on another field.

They own three Brisbane sites and have them earmarked for supermarket and bulky-goods projects.

The partners, who each have two children, have made the beachfront their homes.

Geordie and wife Brittany are well on the way to completing a house on a $6.2m Palm Beach holding.

Marcus and wife Eva, aka TV presenter Eva Milic, have built a new home on a $4.4m site in Hedges Ave at Mermaid Beach.