Cecil hotel on the market, John Potter, Bruce Coulson make move

The big players in the Gold Coast property game are making moves – in Burleigh’s James Street, Broadbeach’s beachfront and splashing on farmland. Quentin Tod has the GOSS

The big players in the Gold Coast property game are making moves – in Burleigh’s James Street, Broadbeach’s beachfront and splashing on farmland at Grafton – meanwhile Southport’s Cecil Hotel is for sale.

24-LEVEL BEACHFRONT PLANS

John Potter.

JOHN Potter, wily property investor and developer, has kicked a goal with an investment in a beachfront building that’s earmarked to make way for a 24-level tower.

He bought into the four-title Karoola low-rise in Broadbeach Boulevard last year for $1.2 million and looks set to at least double his money.

Developer Anthony Quinn put Karoola under contract earlier this year, paying $10 million for the 511 sqm site – an average of $2.5 million for each apartment.

BURLEIGH STRIP PLAY

Bruce Coulson. Picture: Gold Coast Suns.

BRUCE Coulson, childcare industry go-getter, has emerged as the buyer who’s become a landlord, at a cost of $7 million, in the main retail strip at Burleigh Heads.

He’s bought a James St building with six tenants, and next to a Woolies supermarket, on a yield of less than 4 per cent.

Former Kool Kids owner Bruce, in the wake of selling a riverfront Isle of Capri home for a record $26.88 million in 2020, has bought two homes, a commercial property, and now the James St holding.

FISH HOOKS $3.6M FARM

JOHN Fish, one-time joint owner of the Hope Island Resort, has won a bidding battle for a 437ha grazing property at Elland, close to Grafton.

John, who’s been growing palms in northern NSW, has paid $3.61 million for the rolling property, on which up to 250 cattle have been grazed by the owners for the past 10 years.

The property’s appeal to the former developer might include that the land, surrounded by lifestyle blocks, can be chopped into 40ha lots.

PROMINENT WATERING HOLE UP FOR GRABS

The owners of landmark Southport hotel the Cecil, which a blacksmith started 124 years ago, have called time and put the property on the market.

The art deco hotel, on the Southport CBD’s most prominent corner, is owned by Surfers Paradise resident Greg Ryall and Adelaide-based Paul Smith.

The hotel was bought, via company Coral Heath, for $2.4 million 23 years ago and underwent a refurbishment that included creating shops and offices in the two-level building.

The Cecil hotel, Southport.

Glenn Conridge, of Burgess Rawson, yesterday said the two Coralheath shareholders had opted to sell given their ages – they were in their mid-70s.

“The hotel site is in a key part of Southport’s Priority Development Area, which allows height and density in new projects.”

Mr Conridge and Burgess Rawson’s Pete Uebergang are seeking expressions of interest in the Cecil.

Those who have made the Cecil a favourite watering hole over the years have included politicians, sporting stars, and the legal fraternity and among licensees have been rugby league greats John Sattler and the late Peter Gallagher.

A historic image of the hotel. Picture: Supplied

Nerang blacksmith Harry Taylor built the Cecil, then a two-level wooden building on the corner of Nerang and Scarborough streets, in 1908 and it included room for 40 guests.

The structure was moved to another part of the site in 1938 and the then owner, Queensland Brewery, built the brick hotel that exists today.

The hotel, today operated by ALH on a lease that runs to 2035 and has lease options to 2055, has 35 gaming machine licences.

The property, on an 1889sq m site, is netting $845,000 a year.

SURFERS TOWER HICCUP

David Devine.

David Devine, the developer behind the planned beachfront Royale tower in Surfers Paradise, has run into a hiccup as preparations are in train to build the 38-floor project.

Work on Royale is due to start next month but the Devine camp was told, in its development, approval that a seawall was required before building or excavation could start.

A coastal engineer says the seawall can’t be built before the basement and the developer is chasing a change to an ‘erroneous and contradictory’ planning condition.

It wants up to have the seawall up within three months of the Royale basement’s completion.

FUNG CASINO MOVE

Billionaire and horse racing owner Tony Fung.

Tony Fung, Aquis group chief and a billionaire with a racehorse passion, could be about to unsaddle his investment in listed Canberra casino operator Aquis Entertainment.

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A hotel operator has lobbed a $52 million offer for the casino, bought by Tony for $6 million in 2014 and listed on the ASX a year later.

Part of the Fung stake in the Vomitron city block in Surfers Paradise has just sold and Tony has plans for twin Surfers Paradise towers.

BILLIONAIRE BROS HIT MAIN BEACH

Tony Perich (left) and Ron Perich (second from right).

RON and Tony Perich, billionaire Sydney brothers with a multitude of business interests, have spent $5.118 million to buy a sub-penthouse in a tower at Main Beach.

They’ve secured a 350 sqm apartment on the 23rd floor of Liberty Panorama, one of two high-rises developed by Mirvac on a 1.16ha block at the end of the 1990s.

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The Perich family is a southwest Sydney success story and its businesses take in everything from dairying to property, fertiliser production, mining and wood shavings.