Rapid-fire sale at International Beach Resort as it readies for demolition

JOSH Guok has embarked on a task he never dreamt he would face – selling off the contents of a 120-room Surfers Paradise hotel in rapid-fire fashion.

Josh Guok with some of the items being auctioned off. Photo: Quentin Tod

JOSH Guok has embarked on a task he never dreamt he would face – selling off the contents of a 120-room Surfers Paradise hotel in rapid-fire fashion.

The hotel is the International Beach Resort on The Esplanade owned by 95-year-old Singaporean businesswoman Gertrude Guok and her family.

The property has been sold to highrise king Harry Triguboff and has to be empty when the $58 million deal settles on February 28.

Mr Triguboff’s Meriton group wants to start demolishing the 22-level hotel next month ahead of constructing a tower that could go to 90 levels.

The three-star International Beach Resort closed its doors last week and Josh Guok, who has been overseeing the hotel for his family, has embarked on a speedy sell-off of its contents via an online no-reserve auction that is under way and closes on Sunday.

Bidders are competing for everything from kitchen sinks to fire extinguishers, along with more than 200 beds, 120 refrigerators, 120 microwaves, 120 TV sets, and one-offs such as a baby grand piano.

Office manager Paul Bradley at the International Beach Resort. Picture: John Gass

The hotel’s wine and spirit stocks are open to bids at the Lloyds online sell-off, as are hotel accessories such as tea bags and shampoo.

Mr Guok, who arrived on the Gold Coast in 1995 as a boarder at The Southport School and later graduated from Griffith University, said in the past few days a team of 30 men had transferred all the hotel’s room contents “downstairs”. The ground floor and basement are full of furniture and other items that, all going to plan, buyers will have picked up by Wednesday.

COAST’S STILL GOLD FOR GUOKS

Singapore’s Guok family, fresh from selling two Gold Coast assets for $84 million, says the money is here to stay.

Josh Guok, nephew of family patriarch Gertrude Guok, said the money would be reinvested in Queensland and probably on the Gold Coast.

“We’re going to take a break and sit back and assess where our opportunities are,” he said.

“One area that might interest us is Coomera.”

Office manager Paul Bradley with the goods for sale at the International Beach Resort. Picture: John Gass

Mr Guok, a 37-year-old accounting and hotel management graduate of Griffith University, has lived on the Gold Coast for more than 20 years.

“The city is very dynamic and, with prices in Melbourne and Sydney so high, I can see a lot of people moving here in the next few years,” he said.

“The weather here is just stunning.”

Mr Guok said he had good reason to stay on the Gold Coast: “I have met an Australian girl and we are marrying in July.”

The Guoks sold the Greenmount Resort last year and a sale of the International Beach Resort in Surfers Paradise settles at the end of this month.