Paradise Centre: 40 years since Surfers Paradise shopping centre opened
It’s a Gold Coast icon but there has been a winding history to this slice of real estate. RELIVE THE STORY
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THE Paradise Centre and Grundy’s Entertainment Centre are a quintessential part of the Gold Coast story.
From the dawn of the 1980s, they became the symbol of a new modern city which was on the verge of booming.
The $58 million first stage of the complex, the brainchild of developer Eddie Kornhauser, opened its doors for the first time just days before Christmas 1980, with the bulk of shops opening in January 1981.
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The late Mr Kornhauser bought the site in 1975 and spent the rest of that decade designing the complex which was split into three different zones:
● The old Surfers Paradise Hotel once owned by Jim Cavill on the corner of Cavill Ave and Surfers Paradise Boulevard.
● The commercial precinct which ran along Cavill Mall and replaced the Paradise shopping Court and a 36-hole putt-putt course. Mr Kornhauser had built the shopping court as a stopgap project while he plotted the rest of the development.
● A beachfront section between Hanlan St and Cavill Ave which was jointly owned by the Crown and Gold Coast City Council which was leased to the centre for 50 years in return for developing the site, building a new lifesaving club and pedestrian bridge across the esplanade.
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The Bulletin at the time described it as “possibly one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in Australia and its proximity to the beach and commercial centre of the Gold Coast region makes it unique.”
The first stage of the project saw the demolition of the Paradise Shopping Court and the creation of an underground carpark and the bulk of the shops which opened in the last days of 1980.
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The complex, which boasted itself as “the heart of the Gold Coast”, had 65 speciality shops in a “modern airconditioned environment featuring a water wall and glass lift”.
Among the first crop of retailers who moved into the complex were high-end swimming fashion company Sunburn, He men’s boutique, Brothers Neilsen surf shop, The Family Smokehouse delicatessen and heath food shop and Raymonds exclusive gifts, run by businessman and future Gold Coast mayor and MP Ray Stevens.
The centrepiece of the whole complex was to be Grundy’s but it wasn’t ready for the opening day.
The Reg Grundy Leisure Organisation paid $5.5 million for a 22-year lease on two floors of the centre.
Upon the opening of the centre, Grundy’s was pitched to audiences as “the greatest fun event the world has known since America’s Disneyland”.
Its features included the “Olde Englishe Village”, a food court which boasted room for 480 people and cuisine from China, Germany and Britain, Charlie Cheese Pizza Playhouse, plus a series of rides including Mr Grundy’s personal favourite, the carousel.
Grundy’s finally opened on Saturday, March 14, 1981, with the famous water slides opening a month later on April 11.
They went on to become iconic attractions of the Gold Coast through the 1980s but rapidly disappeared.
The flumes were gone by 1987 and Grundy’s finally closed in late 1993.
Timezone now sits in some of its former space and still retains a handful of its original attractions.
In 1981, just months after Grundy’s opening, the old Surfers Paradise Hotel was demolished to make way for the centre’s second stage, which opened in 1983.
Unfortunately the beach end of the complex, where the former flume slides once sat, became rundown in the 1990s and 2000s, leading to a long-running push to redevelop the site.
Council signed off on Challenger Group’s $30 million revamp plans in October 2020.
Work is due to begin in 2021 provided it is ticked off.
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