Gold Coast development: Why construction workers are inside Southport ‘bomb site’

Construction workers are inside the Gold Coast’s most famous ‘bomb site’ which has been earmarked for an 88-storey supertower. Get your first look inside the mysterious ‘hole in the ground’.

CONSTRUCTION workers are working to shore up walls of the Gold Coast’s most famous ‘bomb site’ but don’t expect to see a new tower rising soon.

The walls of the Southport site, which has sat empty for 30 years, began to crumble recently, forcing its owners to provide support via structural walls.

Inside the famous ‘bomb site’. Picture Glenn Hampson

Once slated for a supertower which would dwarf Surfers Paradise’s Q1, building has yet to begin despite developer Cienna securing approval for the project from the Gold Coast City Council.

But area councillor Dawn Crichlow said she was confident the maintenance work on the site was a positive sign.

“There’s been problems and the site could have sunk,” she said.

“Hopefully now this has happened we will start seeing something rise out of the ground.

‘These people say they are going to build and it has been a long time coming.”

An artist impression of the proposed Cienna development

The site, which sits between Southport’s Nerang, Young and Garden streets is close to the location of the Gold Coast’s first cinema.

It was cleared in the 1980s to make way for a tower development which failed to eventuate as a result of the early 1990s recession and has gone through several owners.

The walls are being shored up. Picture Glenn Hampson

Cienna, a Sydney based developer, bought the site in two separate deals a decade apart, with the final piece secured in July 2013 for $1.1 million

Cienna lodged a development application in 2015, earmarking the 4440sq m land for towers with 88 and 38 levels in a plan that included an Asian cultural centre.

But the project has never progressed.

Mayor Tom Tate says the land, which borders Chinatown, was a jewel in the city’s crown and could not continue to remain empty.

The proposed tower.

“The will of council is behind this because we made Southport a priority development area which gives developers the flexibility to bring forward the best and highest use for our CBD,” he said.

“They should bring it to fruition but if they do not want to then put it to the market and let someone else have a vision.

“Fill the hole in, we don’t want tooth decay in our CBD.”

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Heavy machinery on-site. Picture Glenn Hampson

The lack of movement on the site has left some city leaders frustrated give its prime location and the loosening of planning restrictions in an attempt to stimulate development in Southport.

The frustration boiled over in 2017 when Cr Crichlow led calls for developers to face a “use it or lose it” rule, saying many developers have been disingenuous, submitting plans for high-rises and other projects to gain approvals before putting the sites on the market.

Under existing legislation, developers have four years from the time of council approval to develop the site before their project is considered lapsed.