Brisbane developer David Devine is itching to plan elite Gold Coast tower in Burleigh

Brisbane developer’s plan for elite tower overlooking the ocean on the Gold Coast.

DAVID Devine, one-time landlord to a booming beachfront McDonald’s fast-food outlet in Surfers Paradise, could well and truly be building a Big Mac-type appetite for Gold Coast property plays.

The Brisbane developer, an old-timer in the property game, is planning to fire up an elite tower overlooking the ocean at the northern end of Burleigh.

The reception from would-be buyers to Alba, where apartments will start at $2.25 million, apparently has been such that David’s itching to build another tower or two.

That ‘itch’ probably has become greater since someone rolled up and earmarked the $8.6 million penthouse in Alba (the Italian word for sunrise).

Alba Burleigh Heads. Picture: Supplied.

David’s now known to be nibbling on at least one new beachfront site in what he seems to regard as a ‘divine’ location, Burleigh.

There are indications that his Gold Coast ambitions also might go wider than Burleigh – as they have in the past.

The Alba tower is an upshot of the founder of former listed housing company Devine Ltd stepping into the Burleigh market in 2019.

He entered a joint venture to redevelop a 1012 sqm site on The Esplanade occupied by three-level unit block Richards Court.

The partner was the property’s owner, Australian Post-Tel Queensland, which traces back to 1918.

Alba Burleigh Heads. Picture: Supplied.

The initial JV plan was for a 23-level building with 55 apartments, later revised to a project with two fewer floors and 42 apartments.

Australian Post-Tel was to have eight lower-floor units for short-term letting but has taken a buyout offer from the Devine camp and David is going solo.

It’s been suggested the site, which has a rateable value of $5.8 million, is costing him more than $10 million.

The latest configuration for Alba is for 34 half and full-floor apartments capped by that $8.6 million two-level penthouse.

The Devine foray comes as the top-end apartment market at Burleigh, as has happened at Palm Beach, has been firing.

The notable examples in Burleigh’s case are the Forme group’s boutique Luna and Norfolk towers overlooking the ocean in Goodwin Tce, sellout projects where prices above $3 million were the norm.

Both those ventures are heading for completion but the Devine tower is months away from a construction start.

Alba, designed by Liam Proberts, still requires development approval and the prospect of it rising on The Esplanade hasn’t exactly had everyone in the crowd cheering.

The development application’s drawn 270 submissions, or objections, but Devine’s consultants say only 12 of them are from parties within a 5km radius of The Esplanade site.

They contend that of the balance, 193 are from the Alba site’s neighbour, the Mariner Shore resort, which has 3285 timeshare members.

Alba will be far from an apartment tower debut for developer David – his Metro group built 3500 apartments in Brisbane between 2012 and 2018.

That said, Alba will be a first – he’s never attempted one where the starting prices are above $2 million and he’s probably never invested so much money in a display suite.

He’s best known on the Gold Coast for his Devine Homes activities over several decades and for being the owner – and making a big dollar – out of a former Marist Brothers farm in the Currumbin Valley.

Then, of course, there was the Surfers home of McDonald’s, a four-level building on the corner of Cavill Mall and The Esplanade which he bought for $13.1 million in 2004.

It wasn’t such a tasty investment – the property was sold eight years later for $12.25 million.

Maybe he’ll be smiling and saying cheese when the money from the $105 million Alba rolls in.