A 2015 plan to build two towers on Southport’s hole-in-the-ground site was not pursued

THE Singaporean owner of a ‘hole-in-the-ground’ site in the heart of Southport appears willing to step aside to let someone else put a foot on it.

A 2015 plan to build two towers on Southport’s hole-in-the-ground site was not pursued.

THE Singaporean owner of a ‘hole-in-the-ground’ site in the heart of Southport appears willing to step aside to let someone else put a foot on it.

The Lee Kim Tah group’s Australian arm, Cienna, has had at least one Asian group cast an eye over the site, which has sat vacant for nearly 30 years.

Apparently the would-be buyer wasn’t keen to spend in excess of $40 million, even though the site abuts the Chinatown precinct.

Cienna lodged a development application in 2015, earmarking the land for towers with 88 and 38 levels in a plan that included an Asian cultural centre.

An 88 storey two-tower development planned for Southport

The application was withdrawn early last year and has not been relodged.

The 4440sq m Cienna site has frontages to Nerang, Young and Garden streets and was bought in two deals that occurred a decade apart.

The near $7 million Southport foray hasn’t been a happy one for Cienna and Lee Kim Tah.

During the GFC the Singaporean group, which has outlaid a small fortune in holding costs, wrote down the book value of its investment.

The major part of the Cienna site is a legacy of an investment thrust into Southport by a former Qantas steward and an Adelaide car dealer in the late ’80s property boom.

They bought a 4361sq m holding and built a three-level commercial building on the eastern portion.

The remainder, today’s hole-in-the-ground, was excavated for a 13-level tower with retail and office components.

A mortgagee later stepped in and sold the ‘hole’ in 1991 to a company believed associated with pop star the late Michael Hutchence.

Brisbane developer Kevin Miller bought it for $2.55 million in 2002 and flicked it to Cienna at more than twice that sum less than 18 months later.

Gold Coast Bulletin columnist Quentin Tod

The buy quite possibly has been one of the worst by an arm of the Lee Kim Tah group.

Of course, that will all change if a buyer does stump up $40 million-plus, or close to it.

Lee Kim Tah is no slouch when it comes to development.

It has built hotels and shopping centres in Asia and ventured into India.

In Sydney, its Cienna arm has built luxury apartments in Neutral Bay and Mosman and operates boutique hotels.

Lee Kim Tah also has runs on the board in the London market, where its projects have included luxury apartments opposite the Lords cricket ground in the exclusive St John’s Wood suburb.

One of its apartment buyers, in a St John’s Wood project called Templar Court, was former British PM Sir John Major.

Obviously, Lee Kim Tah has discovered that Southport is no St John’s Wood.