Surfers Paradise Bowls Club land: Council files information away for later use

The future of one of the Gold Coast’s most important sites looks like it will not be resolved for several years after a development at council today.

The future of one of the Gold Coast’s most important development parcels — the Surfers Paradise Bowls Club site — does not look like it will be resolved for several years.

Councillors at a Events Tourism and Governance committee meeting today were given an updated report by officers.

Mayor Tom Tate and his fellow investors last month announced their parcel of land on the controversial site which had approval for a 56-level tower called Waterglow would be put on the market.

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Surfers Paradise Bowls Club site on Peninsular Drive, Gold Coast

The Peninsula Drive site was part of a Crime and Corruption Commission probe where the Mayor was cleared of any corrupt conduct. He was not at the committee meeting today.

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The greens were closed nine years ago and one of the challenges of developing the site was the State, council and private interests have owned separate sections.

The council report said the City’s block of 1833 sqm which fronted Remembrance Drive and Peninsula Drive, was judged surplus to needs in 2016 and put out for public tender.

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The state, council and private interests have each owned separate sections of the site.

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An above and below ground car park takes up much of the property called Lot 6 and is used by residents of the nearby Surfers Paradise Plaza Resort.

Council officers in their report noted that to remove the car park “will come at a cost” and that the market for development sites “in general had softened considerably since 2016”.

“As such, the timing for the future disposal of Lot 6 is somewhat uncertain but suffice to say, no urgency need be factored into thinking about any disposal process, rather a patient approach until market conditions improve,” the officer’s report said.

Residents at the Surfers Plaza Resort had leases securing their carparking rights until December 2021, the report added.

The officers concluded that “the potential for the structure to be demolished is unlikely to arise as an option until that time”.

The item was not debated by councillors and the officer’s recommendation was for council just to note its contents.

Outside the meeting, committee chair Bob La Castra confirmed council would hold onto the land until 2021 largely due to the car park lease.

“So we think it is best to hold back putting it back to market until then,” he said.

Cr La Castra said the long term plan by council was to dispose of its land on the site.

“I think we would be happy for it to be off the books purely from the point of view that we consider it to be surplus to requirements,” he said.