On The QT: Hotel could be in works for Main Beach ahead of development deal

A posh hotel could be in the works for a struggling Gold Coast suburb ahead of a new development deal.

A POSH hotel could be on the horizon for Main Beach if a deal on a development site gets over the line.

A Brisbane group has a conditional contract on a five-title site that twice in the past three years has been approved for towers.

A sign announcing that a ‘luxury five-star boutique hotel is coming soon’ has been erected on the land.

If the hotel does indeed ‘come’, it’s likely to be low-rise — only four or five levels.

The owner of the land, the Garry Rothwell-founded Winten group, isn’t saying boo but property insiders say it’s under conditional contract.

Apparently the agreed price is north of $16 million but whether the deal is going ahead won’t be known until due diligence has been completed in September.

The hotel plan comes as Main Beach, bereft of any new tower for 11 years, is in the early stages of a development surge.

The latest Winten tower plans revealed.

Boutique tower Cerulean is under way in Pacific St and developer Brian Heran is believed to be poised to start marketing a tower on the

former Midwaters low-rise site on the western side of Main Beach Pde.

Veteran developer Jim Raptis apparently has been ‘dancing’ with Brisbane shopping centre owner Steve Kaskabas over a deal on a site on the dry side of Main Beach Pde.

Meanwhile, the Trenert group has launched White, a luxury tower with full-floor apartments, and it has been greeted with immediate buyer enthusiasm.

Melbourne hotelier John Carayiannis has been laying plans for a 21-level tower in Pacific St but a start appears far from imminent.

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The mooted luxury hotel is earmarked for a 2655sqm holding that sits between Woodroffe and Peak avenues.

Winten bought four of the titles from an entrepreneurial fellow called David Baird for $8.2 million and then took its ‘spend’ to $10.3 million by adding the fifth title.

Since settling the purchases in 2015, Winten has been through some machinations over the holding.

In 2016 it was approached by a Melbourne group which said it had a Chinese hotel operator in tow and wanted to undertake a joint venture on the land.

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The upshot was approval for a 47-level hotel and apartment tower inspired by sci-fi film Blade Runner.

The would-be hotel operator disappeared and so did the potential JV.

A Brisbane group, believed to be Oxmar Properties, came into the picture but didn’t go ahead with a deal and then, late last year, Salacia Waters landowner the Metacap group was reported to have the site under contract.

It’s been more than a decade since Main Beach saw any new developments. Photo: Jerad Williams

The approval for the Blade Runner tower has since been superceded by one for a 21-floor building with 132 apartments and streetfront townhouses, designed by Mermaid Beach’s BDA Architecture.

It appears that if the latest contract on the land doesn’t proceed to finality, Winten will be quite happy to develop the approved tower itself but not until at least the second half of 2020.

Meanwhile, the Sydney group, which has had a Gold Coast office since 1990, has been making hay with a 350-lot estate called Canungra Rise on land it’s owned since 2004.

The first 55 lots were a sellout at between $210,000 and $300,000 each and 20 in a 29-lot second stage are spoken for.

A mystery Surfers Paradise development site has been served up.

A MYSTERY Surfers Paradise development site overlooking the ocean has quietly been served up as a teaser to select potential buyers.

The agency selling the site isn’t yet telling its ‘buyers’ where the land is, other than it is ‘absolute beachfront’, which means it has to be south of central Surfers.

The price expectation for the near 1400sqm site, which has a high- density zoning and a 30-metre beach frontage, is believed to be north of $20 million.

The Old Burleigh Theatre Arcade may soon get a new neighbour.

THE Brisbane group planning an apartment tower next to the Old Burleigh Theatre Arcade has been on what could be called a Jenny Craig slimming exercise.

Pointcorp originally intended to put a 12-floor tower with 41 apartments on the Caltex servo site, which fronts Goodwin Tce and the highway and has cost it $8 million.

The tower, yet to be approved and on a possible light-rail site, has been narrowed to safeguard a view corridor and apartment numbers cut to 30.

A Melbourne duo have scored a King Charles Dr property.

THE husband-and-wife team of Matthew and Joanna Malec has taken its settled spending on Sovereign Islands property to a smidgen under $20 million with an eighth purchase.

The couple, who hail from Melbourne, are nudging billionaire Clive Palmer and family in terms of having the most valuable property portfolio on the elite islands.

The latest addition to the holdings of Matthew, a logistics company operator, and Joanna has been a $2.675 million home in King Charles Drive.