Cairns real estate: Edmonton Sugarworld residential development revived

A major interstate development company has snared almost 30ha of prime Cairns land that will be ready for a residential subdivision within months.

A TASMANIAN development company has bought almost 30ha of land at Edmonton and will create a 210 lot residential development, with a sales launch expected within months.

Five parcels of land between Woodlock Drive and Wiseman Rd Reserve, comprising flat former sugarcane land and forested hilly slopes, have been secured by Launceston-based The JAC Group.

The land was part of developer David Dale’s Sugarworld Heights development that hit the market in December with a $15m price tag for a combined 219 approved lots.

The JAC group managing director Dean Cocker, the grandson of company founder Joseph Chromy, who is 90 and actively involved, visited the site last week along with Peter King, manager of land sales and subdivisions for the company.

The JAC group managing director Dean Cocker and manager of residential subdivisions Peter King at the site the group has purchased. The Tasmanian-based company will develop a residential estate at Edmonton. Picture: supplied.

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Mr Cocker said the company diversified from its wineries, hotels and commercial development focus in the early 2000s with more than a dozen residential subdivisions throughout Tasmania and has more than 5000 residential lots under development or sale throughout the state.

Blocks at the site will range from 3000 sqm on the hillside to 600 sqm on flat land, and the sites will be divided into two precincts – The Terraces and The Heights, with sites on the latter offering city views.

Mr Cocker said the group became aware of the Edmonton land as a project manager formerly lived in Cairns.

“We decided to have a look at it, we had some spare cash, and we think that the market in Cairns may have been depressed for a while but it is lifting and certainly once international borders re-open, Cairns is going to boom,” Mr Cocker said.

“This is a subdivision that had stopped for a couple of years, Sugarworld, and we have taken on areas that are probably the premium end.

“The first stage will be about 30 lots at The Terrace, we are getting pricing from civil teams, then we will get council sign-off on the civil documents,” he said.

“We have lots ready to apply for title to be issued, they’ve been sitting there for couple of years and we are going to release those.

“The JAC group is really relishing the opportunity to become involved in development in Cairns, we think that it is a city that has had hard times with COVID but it is roaring back with maritime and other investment, and we think cairns has got a really bright future – that’s why we want to be here,” Mr Cocker said.

“The north side (of Cairns) is extremely well developed out and the south side is probably closer, and this is almost infill because the subdivision here had stopped.

“We think being on the south side doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have a really high, beautiful standard of housing.

“We have got great success in the past of actually building premier estates, so we are not people who will come in and kick the tyres and leave, we want to make sure that we leave a legacy when we do our developments and that’s something Joe has always been very proud of, and it won’t change up here, I can guarantee that.

“We’ve built estates from affordable housing right up to multimillion-dollar homes in some of our estates – this is a mid-tier kind of market. It will be something special.”

The company has appointed RE/MAX to market the development and agent Udo Jattke said the point of differentiation for the development was large block sizes.

“It’s not a small lot subdivision, like is what has been turned out of late, it is a good sized subdivision, these are good sized blocks which Cairns hasn’t seen for a while,” Mr Jattke said.

“I have probably built 1,000 houses in this area, so I am going back to what I am used to – I have building experience and land sales ability, it is what I do best, and getting people into homes is a joy to me, I love it,” he said.

“What these guys are going to do is a really quality subdivision.”

The development is separate from the nearby Mountain View development, a 58 lot project on a former sugarcane property of 4.35ha at 500L Hambledon Drive, owned by Golden Nguyen Pty Ltd.

Excavation work at that site began in mid-December.

Originally published as Cairns real estate: Edmonton Sugarworld residential development revived