The Lanes: New pedestrian bridge opens at Mermaid Waters connecting to Q Centre
A new bridge connecting one of the Gold Coast’s busiest shopping centres to a major residential precinct is “just the beginning”, its developer says. FIND OUT MORE
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A new bridge connecting one of the Gold Coast’s busiest shopping centres to a major residential precinct is “just the beginning”, its developer says.
The $200,000 bridge runs across the Clear Island spillway, between Clear Island Lake and Lake Intrepid, creating the first pedestrian link between the Q Centre and The Lanes precinct.
It was built by developer Panthera Group which owns much of The Lanes precinct and opened on Monday, with residents from the Esprit de Vie retirement village among the first to cross it.
Panthera boss Mario Evangelo said the project was the first of several changes it was planning for the site.
“For us it has always been about the community, so we fast-tracked a lot of projects within the precinct, this being one of them,” he said.
“It is one of many steps (we are going to do) and we are looking forward to delivering on The Lanes precinct.
“Just seeing people walking along the roadway prompted us to do this.
“This makes sense — it should have been done some time ago, but we are here now and we want to make a difference.”
Panthera bought much of The Lanes precinct from the Sunland Group in October 2021 for $45.8m.
The site included a planned shopping centre and retail village.
Panthera’s future plans for the complex remain under wraps.
Cutting the ribbon and opening the bridge was a full-circle moment for Mermaid Beach MP
Ray Stevens, who opened the neighbouring Q Centre more than 30 years ago during his time as mayor of Albert Shire Council.
“It’s a fantastic piece of infrastructure to connect the major residential area of The Lanes with the Q Centre, which I opened 30 years ago,” he said.
“It will create safe access to the centre, which will help the residents and it is a major development.
“Panthera has a lot of work to do here and this is a site a lot of developers had tried to do something with but couldn’t.
“It’s a hard birth but it has now come to fruition and this bridge is a big part of that.”
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