Melbourne developer Tim Gurner to bring $600m project to the Gold Coast’s Glitter Strip

A young Melbourne developer is coming to town to deliver a $600 million project that he believes will be a world first.

PACESETTING young Melbourne developer Tim Gurner is coming to town to deliver a $600 million Surfers Paradise project that he believes will be a world first.

Rich-lister Mr Gurner, 38, is teaming up with investment group Wingate to undertake a mixed-use and resort venture on a whole city block, a project that will not include ‘just another tower’.

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Artist impressions of the proposed Sapphire development in Surfers Paradise. The site's new owners plan to redesign the project.

He is targeting the Gold Coast at a time when he predicts the city will have its biggest property run ever.

Mr Gurner intends to deliver between 500 and 600 apartments on a 1.2ha Budds Beach site for which Wingate is a mortgagee and which has a 2016 approval for 1000 apartments in a project tagged Sapphire.

The Gurner group says it will embark on a complete redesign to deliver a multi-tower precinct which will include high-end residential product, family-focused resort living, hotel, retail and hospitality components, and potentially build-to- rent apartments.

The project also will include its ‘signature luxury amenity offerings’.

Design competition submissions are being sought from some of Australia’s best architecture firms to ensure a ‘best-in-class design outcome’.

“We have been looking at the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast for a considerable amount of time, but we wanted to find a site that would allow us to do something really special,” Mr Gurner yesterday said.

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The former Ralan Group site which will be redeveloped.

“We have a very ambitious goal for this site in terms of complete offering for our clients and I believe that offering is something that has not been delivered in the world before.

“It will be a surprise to the market when we can reveal it in coming months.

“It will create an environment like no other in Australia.

“I believe the Gold Coast is about to have its largest market run in history as Australians realise just how spectacular our eastern seaboard coastline is and are more motivated than ever before to invest and live in a coastal destination. “

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Mr Gurner said the Surfers site gave his group the flexibility to stage a project if needed.

“However, if the market appetite is there we can launch multiple products at the same time to cater for different demands and deliver it all in one hit.”

Mr Gurner started his Gurner group in 2013 and by last year was in the Australian Financial Review rich list with an estimated worth of $672 million.

He has built towers in elite Melbourne suburbs, a 1000-title Brisbane project called FV, and is about to debut at Port Douglas where he has plans for a $60 million high-class resort that will include 16 boutique homes, priced from $900,000 to $15 million.

The developer caused outrage among Millennials in 2017 during an interview about housing affordability.

“When I was buying my first home, I wasn’t buying smashed avocado for 19 bucks and four coffees at $4 each,” he said.