John Potter to cash out of Gold Coast’s Hedges Ave after council blocks 5-level apartment plan

THEY were going to be the most luxurious apartments on Millionaire’s Row. But a well-heeled investor has walked away from Hedges Ave.

John Potter was going to sell these apartments at $7.5 million each but now he’s offloading the land.

THERE’S a game of high fives going on in Millionaires’ Row and already there’s been one ‘loser’.

A couple of the rather well-heeled residents of Mermaid Beach’s Hedges Ave have unveiled plans to build luxury boutique apartment projects on the beachfront.

At the southern end of Hedges, developer John Potter has been aspiring to erect a building with four single-floor apartments.

At the northern end of the street, cotton farmer Alan Frost wants to bowl an abode known to locals as The Bunker House to make way for a building with three apartments.

Both the Frost and Potter buildings would be four levels — or that’s the theory.

In fact, it’s emerged that under planning rules, they’d be five because in both cases the basements protrude a metre or more above the ground and therefore are regarded as levels, or floors.

John Potter had planned to sell these at $7.5 million each.

That doesn’t matter so much at the Frost site because it’s in an area where a total height of 15 metres is allowed.

Back at the Potter site, the allowable limit is 13.5 metres but John’s been aiming for more than 14 metres.

His plans, submitted midyear, received a frosty reception from city council planners, not just for the mooted height but also because they saw the building as ‘dominant, austere and bulky’.

John had hoped to have had construction of apartments that would have cost around $7.5 million each under way by February.

The David Hanson-designed building that developer John Potter wanted to build in Hedges Ave.

Now the long-time property player, apparently unwilling to get into a protracted planning battle, has put his ‘high fives’ hand in his pocket and is selling his site.

Meanwhile, Alan’s going through his planning journey — one he went through back in 2015 when he was given the green light for a three-level building.

He now wants to add another level, not by including an extra apartment but by creating a two-level penthouse.

That move apparently, even with part of the basement sitting above ground level, would not take the building above the area’s 15-metre height limit.

Alan bought the beachfront site, occupied by a three-level house inspired by the design work of Harry Seidler and Frank Lloyd-Wright, for $2.92 million in 2000.

Seven years later he paid $8.7 million for an adjoining home, selling it for $4 million seven years later.

241 Hedges Ave, Mermaid Beach.

Three years ago he took his chequebook south along Hedges and paid $6.6 million for the home of developer Mark Howard.

It’s not known whether he’ll sell his Hedges Ave apartments, if the project gets the go ahead, or perhaps sell two and retain the penthouse.

Meanwhile, the two lots that make up the Potter site are being sold.

The pair cost John $7.75 million and he’s put them on the market at $4.975 million for the southern one and $4.75 million for the neighbouring one.

John Potter with his dog Honey, who is not for sale.

SOHEIL Abedian, joint founder of the Sunland Group and long-time

high-rise dweller, has developed a rural hankering.

He’s apparently spent $2.2 million buying a large home on more than

three hectares in the Tallebudgera Valley, intending to use it as a

retreat for a family that has swelled with the arrival of more

grandchildren.

The Abedian ‘spend’ pales alongside the $19 million or so Chinese

businessman Riyu Li, initiator of the beachfront Jewel project, and

family have spent in the Tally Valley.

Soheil Abedian. Pic: Tara Croser.

THE site-amalgamation game could be back on at Main Beach, with the three-level Aloha Lane property being eyed.

The 47-title building, which fronts Breaker and Pacific streets and Cronin Ave, is on a 3750 sqm site not far from the beach.

Aloha was completed in 1988 by Noel Gordon’s Gordon Pacific group — also responsible for the nearby Chidori Court and The Decks low-rises and Park Lane tower — after the wily Jack Heaton put the site together.

Park Lane apartments as they were in 1989.

BRUCE Coulson, founder of the Kools Kids early-learning group, and wife Carolyne have aborted plans to demolish an Isle of Capri home to make way for a stately three-level home and sold the property at a $400,000 loss.

Artist impressions of the mansion that was planned for Naples Ave, Isle of Capri. Image: Jared Poole Design

The five-bedroom Naples Ave property, bought in late 2015, has been sold to Hannah Quinlivan for $5.25 million.

The Coulsons have spent $13.5 million buying adjoining properties in Capri’s The Promenade, one of them previously rented to film star Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.