Nev Pask emerges as $25M buyer of Tony Smith home in Mermaid Beach on Gold Coast – files plans to build luxury units on the site
The son of a deceased billionaire appears to be getting all his ducks in a row to potentially knock over a $25 million mansion in Mermaid Beach and replace it with luxury apartments.
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DEAN Pask, who two years ago stepped into the driver’s seat to head a property empire after the passing of billionaire dad Nev, appears to be getting all his ducks in a row to potentially knock over a $25 million mansion.
He’s reportedly the buyer who in May showed an expensive hankering for beachfront property by snaring the Mermaid Beach home of BreakFree founder Tony Smith and wife Simone.
The big question on the oceanfront since then has been whether the property will be used as a family home or become a development site.
The issue might not necessarily have become clearer late last week when a development application was filed for approval to put eight luxury apartments on the 2112sq m site, which is at the head of Heron Ave, just off Albatross Ave.
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It’s been suggested the quest for approval for a project that’s described as ‘respectful’ to the neighbourhood might be a move to get in before the town plan changes.
As the plan stands today, a building of up to 15 metres high is allowed – a height that could be crimped if the plan changes.
The ‘Pask’ application has been filed not by the $25 million buyer but by Baden Goddard’s BGD Architects.
The application appears intended to be more than compliant with the existing town plan in areas such as boundary setbacks and parking and also is within the 15-metre limit.
The proposed building would have 35 car parks – 32 of them for the eight owners and the balance for visitors.
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The May purchase of the Smith home is not over the odds in terms of land prices.
It equates to $11,837 a square metre – the wife of Sunland Group managing-director Sahba Abedian has paid $12,222 a square metre along the beachfront for a smaller site.
The Smith holding has an apartment history – it was home to a three-level walk-up, the 17-unit Mermaid Lodge, when bought in 2014.
Dean Pask for many years ran the Pask Group’s major activities in and around the Victorian capital and is no stranger to developing tasteful up-market apartment buildings.
He took the helm at the Pask Group in the wake of dad Nev dying at 87 in 2018 after a long career highlighted by his canny skills in acquiring land and developing residential estates.
The Main Beach-based Nev, who started his working life as an apprentice printer, and his group long had a southeast Queensland focus but in the late 90s it ventured to Melbourne, where it today has a major presence.
Nev perhaps mulled over a Gold Coast foray three years ago.
He attended the auction of tired beachfront resort Nobbys Outlook, along with the likes of fellow billionaire Bob Ell, but didn’t lodge a bid.
Perhaps he decided that when the bidding soared past $20 million, the blue-chip site wasn’t viable for apartments or housing lots.
Son Dean appears to have decided that apartments can be viable at $25 million – or with a land cost equivalent to more than $3 million for each apartment.
For the benefit of those who might be aspiring buyers, the four-bedroom apartments each will have floor areas of more than 700sq m and, by virtue of the design, effectively be one apartment a floor.
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