Gold Coast Council in brawl with Hotel Property Investments after application for office knocked back

IT’S a pub brawl with a difference — an owner of 41 hotels around Australia taking on the city council in a fight that could cost it hundreds of thousands of dollars.

IT’S a pub brawl with a difference — an owner of 41 hotels around Australia taking on the city council in a fight that could cost it hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The listed Hotel Property Investments wants to build an office block for a single tenant next to its Ferry Road Tavern.

The city council has said ‘no’ — but you can build one that has several tenants.

HPI will not take the knock-back and in mid-January it will be pulling no punches as it fights to reverse the council decision before the Planning and Environment Court.

Don Smith, the HPI managing-director, yesterday said the appeal was expected to cost the company up to $700,000 and the city council also would be facing great expense.

He said that if the appeal was lost, the Gold Coast could lose a tenant that employed 80 people.

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Hotel Property Investments wants to build an office block for a single tenant next to its Ferry Road Tavern. Photo: Supplied

The tenant, which wanted ground-level space because of the nature of its business, had indicated it would have to move elsewhere to find what it needed.

The proposed office building would be on a 3025 sqm portion of the larger HPI site which, in addition to the tavern and a bottleshop, houses a service station and other food and retail outlets.

The land is zoned as a mixed-use fringe business precinct and in 2016 was approved for a building with three showrooms and a cafe.

“HPI was unable to secure showroom tenants as the site’s frontage is effectively a side road,” said Mr Smith.

“While the address is Ferry Rd, the actual entrance is Cotlew St, which carries lower traffic volumes and is not suitable for showroom tenants.”

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Mr Smith said that whatever the outcome of the appeal, a 1200 sqm office building would go ahead, even if it meant providing tenancies of up to 200 sqm.

A council spokesman yesterday said that while the matter was before the Planning and Environment Court, it would not be appropriate to comment.

A report by council officers to the planning committee ahead of the refusal said that the city plan sought to ensure large offices were located within designated centres.

Offices outside those centres were to be ‘low key’ to service a local catchment and not undermine the designated centres.

HPI’s Ferry Rd property was developed in 2001 by one of the founders of Freedom Furniture, Peter Palan, on a 1.39ha site bought for $1.4 million from a mortgagee.

A two-level office building was proposed to complete what was called Ferry Junction but did not go ahead.

Ferry Junction was sold to hotelier Tom Hedley for $31.85 million in 2006.

Two US hedge funds bought the distressed pub portfolios of the Hedley Group and National Gaming and Leisure after the GFC and 41 Coles-operated properties were floated as Hotel Property Investments in 2013.

Other Gold Cost hotels in the HPI portfolio are the Wallaby at Mudgeeraba and the Coomera Lodge.