Quentin Tod: South Lakes community at Lake Orr, Varsity Lakes invoke rare review over sales

A lengthy standoff that threatened to sink a management rights deal worth around $6 million into a lake has had a happy ending.

South Lakes, Varsity Lakes, Gold Coast.

A LENGTHY standoff that threatened to sink a management rights deal worth around $6 million into a lake has had a happy ending.

The buyers of the rights to the three-tower South Lakes community overlooking Lake Orr at Varsity Lakes are ‘on site’ in what is something of a better-late-than-never scenario.

A deal to buy the rights was signed 11 months ago but things went far from smoothly from there on as a process possibly never used before on the Gold Coast unfolded.

It seems the South Lakes committee, or some members of it, weren’t happy with a couple of aspects of the sales arrangement and the matter turned into a saga.

GERMAN INVESTORS PLACE $30M INTO VARSITY LAKES PROPERTY

South Lakes, Varsity Lakes, Gold Coast.

Sitting on the sidelines watching were developers George Mastrocostas and Evan Raptis, who had retained the rights and installed their own management team when the 374-apartment project was completed 18 months ago.

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They probably were champing at the bit to get the deal done — the sale was a prelude to the go-getters going their separate ways by winding up their Emandar group.

It was March, 2018, that the South Lakes rights, with the associated caretaking agreement, were put on the market.

The sale package included a letting pool with more than 200 apartments, a manager’s residence, and offices.

When a syndicate stepped forward and signed up in August, the Emandar partners looked ready to head for the door.

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Then, when due diligence was completed, the parties involved entered into what’s known as the assignment process.

It was then that the South Lakes body corporate apparently stepped in and invoked a right to have a forced review of the sale terms.

Such a review, rarely if ever used on the Gold Coast, is only available to a committee when the rights are sold by a developer for the first time and not in subsequent sales.

In the South Lakes case, it seems the committee wasn’t happy with the manager’s salary or the schedule of caretaking duties.

Artist impressions of the buildings in 2016. Photo: supplied

Things were going around in circles and eventually buyer and seller each called in an independent assessor.

The upshot, apparently on the eve of the squabble being referred to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, was an agreement with which all parties were happy and the deal proceeded.

George and Evan no doubt were pleased, as was the very discreet no-comment fellow who quietly marketed the rights, Alex Cook, from Resort Brokers.

It appears his South Lakes sale was a feat of endurance compared to two $10 million-plus deals he’d done in Broadbeach on the Beach and Signature towers.

George and Evan previously have scored handsomely out of management rights.

Back in 2017 they sold the rights to their Harbour Quays and East Quays buildings at Biggera Waters for $13 million.

George probably will have some more to sell in the next 18 months or so — he’s building a sold-out apartment tower at Labrador and has other projects in the pipeline on a $15 million Hope Island landbank.

DOUG Kefford, a Melburnian who owned a landmark Sorrento mansion that had hosted sultans and music stars, has spent $5.25 million on a home overlooking Sanctuary Cove’s The Palms golf course.

Doug, who rode to wealth in the bus and transport industries, bought Sorrento’s Bartinon in 2009 for $8 million and sold it for nearly $800,000 less five years later.

Three years ago he snared a $4.475 million penthouse in the Daiwa House-built Inlet tower at Main Beach.

A DEAL to sell the up-market Main Beach apartment of Shafston International College founder Keith Lloyd has fallen over but the former shipbuilder isn’t giving up.

It was reported last month that the beachfront Ocean Isles property had sold to a Sydney buyer for close to its $7.5 million asking price.

With that deal off, Keith’s changing agents, moving from Lucy Cole to Michael Kollosche, and apparently is very keen to do business at an August auction.

RON Bakir, the man behind developer HomeCorp, has had a tilt, unsuccessfully, at buying a riverfront Paradise Waters home long owned by former motorcycle champion Mick Doohan.

He was the top bidder, at $2.7 million, on the 1970s Admiralty Drive home, bought by Doohan company Moto GP for $510,000 in 1991.

Ron, who sold his Chevron Renaissance penthouse for $9.5 million 18 months ago, has a leased riverfront Isle of Capri home in his bag of assets.