Gold Coast development: $100m renovation of Jewel to delay triple tower opening until 2022

A $1.4 billion set of towers are to undergo $100 million of renovations and create 200 jobs. But it’s going to take a while. HERE ARE THE DETAILS

THE $1.4 billion - and counting - Jewel triple towers in Surfers Paradise are to undergo $100 million of renovations creating 200 jobs during the next 12 months.

The middle and tallest tower is at the centre of contract negotiations for a dramatic interior facelift at luxury hotelier Langham’s request.

The new works contract with Hutchinson Builders is yet to be signed but worth around $100 million and will keep 200 tradies in jobs for 12 months, it can be revealed. It is expected to begin early 2021.

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Jewel. Picture Glenn Hampson

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CFMEU delegate Scott Vink said site works to prepare for the Hutchinson contract had begun the past few weeks with new smoko sheds and amenities going into the basement for the workers.

The Jewel jobs and activity were “great for the city coming out of coronavirus” but “these people must have major money because you would think they would have finished this a long time ago.”

Of the works starting next year, Mr Vink said he understood it would involve an initial few months of pulling “walls back and surfaces apart, seeing what goes where … seeing where services and everything was, the power, water pipes, to see it is where it says it is.

Jewel’s middle tower will be revamped. Picture Glenn Hampson

“There are a lot of alterations. It might take a month or two then it will be all systems go. Then it’s going to be about a year-long project, $100 million worth give or take five … and up to 200 workers which is great thing for the Gold Coast.”

Mr Vink said 20 to 30 staff had been on site the past six months “sprucing up … fixing a few dents here and there – what you do at the end of a job. We want to get this icon Jewel project up and running so all these visitors can come and check out the Gold Coast and keep Tom Tate happy.”

Construction of the Jewel towers began in 2015.

Hotel brand Langham had demanded new designs for its rooms, the Bulletin reported in July. Langham argued at the time the hotel had to be a “luxury” development and not just “a regular four-star Australia Hilton”.

Langham will manage 170 serviced apartments between the 22nd and top floor with rooms and suites for the hotel between the third and 20th.

AW Holding Group, which owns Jewel, did not respond to Bulletin questions.

Mounting bills include an estimated $3 million in annual land tax and more than $10 million in annual council rates and water charges.

A look at the award-winning landscaping of the Jewel Towers at Surfers Paradise.

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Jewel construction began in March 2015 and has been beset by changes in ownership, delays and strikes in 2018 by workers due to contract upheaval.

It is not the first time the Jewel has undergone a major refit - in May 2018 the Bulletin revealed day spa plumbing set into concrete in the southern tower would be torn up and relocated into the northern tower where conference rooms were under construction. The convention area would relocate to the spa site.

But it has won several awards including three recent gongs at the Landscape Queensland Construction Excellence Awards.

The Surfers Paradise Jewel towers will finally open in 2022. Picture: LUKE MARSDEN PHOTO

Features will include restaurants, a cafe, lobby lounge, pool bar and podium sky terrace with ocean views plus a 500sq m spa taking its inspiration from traditional Chinese medicine.

There are also plans to open a signature Cantonese restaurant to mirror Michellin-starred counterparts in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Leading Gold Coast real estate figure Max Christmas said Jewel had been impacted by dramatic changes to the property market since construction began, impacting sales on the towers’ units.

He said similar issues had not hit other major projects.

“What will put the Gold Coast on the map will be projects like the Star casino towers and Harry Triguboff’s new project,” he said.

“They will be the two main ones, don’t worry too much about the rest. As for Jewel, we’ll see how it goes in a couple of years.”

Destination Gold Coast chair Paul Donovan said Jewel’s visual appeal and bringing the Langham hotel brand would add “huge value to the Gold Coast tourism scene”.

“They will open when they are ready and not to suit other people.”