Shock property deal: majority of councillors vote on fate of central Surfers car park

The city’s biggest car parking row has taken a new twist with council refusing to halt the sale of ratepayer land which provides spaces for Surfers Paradise unit owners.

The city’s biggest car parking row has taken a new twist with the council refusing to halt the sale of ratepayer land that provides spaces for Surfers Paradise unit owners.

About 40 Surfers Plaza residents protested outside council chambers last month, calling for a halt to the sale of the prime development site next to where Mayor Tom Tate’s consortium owns a parcel.

But the latest recommendation by council officers to continue with the sale was approved by councillors at a governance committee meeting on Wednesday.

Surfers Plaza residents protested at council headquarters last month the loss of carparks. Picture: Glenn Hampson

Councillors voting in favour were committee chair William Owen-Jones, Deputy Mayor Donna Gates, Brooke Patterson, Pauline Young and Ryan Bayldon-Lumsden.

Only veteran councillor Daphne McDonald voted against. Mayor Tate was absent and area councillor Darren Taylor was not allowed to vote due to a potential conflict.

Cr Owen-Jones admitted the situation presented a “unique set of circumstances” but the council had been “even handed” in its approach.

The city’s parcel covers 1833sq m with frontage to Remembrance and Peninsular drives, and includes a two-level reinforced concrete structure that previously served as lawn bowling greens on the podium level and carparking of 49 bays.

Three adjoining lots provide for 237 carparking bays utilised by Plaza residents.

Officers said that in November 2021 the council decided its land was surplus to needs and resolved to dispose of it by public tender.

A contract of sale lapsed largely due to “an obligation to construct 150 carparking bays and to provide those bays to the resort on unfavourable commercial terms”.

Former Deputy Mayor Eddy Sarroff has spoken to media on behalf of residents. Picture: Glenn Hampson

Officers warned in their report:

* To provide 150 car parking bays for the benefit of the resort would render any redevelopment of the site as “commercially unviable”.

* To redevelop the site on a standalone basis will not provide the carparking bays required by the resort and a new potential tower development.

* Any contractual obligation to do so would only “sterilise the redevelopment potential”.

* The resort was developed as part of an 1987 rezoning approval for the broader bowls club site – and the condition to provide carparking “does not run with the land”.

* To be compliant with the approval, the resort is not required to provide carparking.

* The resort cannot take action requiring its carparking to be provided on any adjoining land.

The old Surfers Paradise Bowls Club hit financial difficulty.

Councillors will vote at a full council meeting on Tuesday.

The Mayor has previously declared his interest in an adjacent property and left the room. A probity advisor was appointed to oversee the tender process.

Mr Tate is selling the final part of his investment. A sale is expected to be finalised in September. An option for residents is to negotiate a deal with the new developer.

Their current arrangement with the city is a peppercorn lease of $1 annually on a site that independent valuers say can return $100,000 for more than 40 spaces.

In 2005, Mr Tate and business colleague Kelvin Gersbach bought the Surfers Paradise Bowls Club headquarters for $1.43m and later its greens for $770,000, after members faced a $1m debt. Mr Gersbach sold his stake in the property in 2020 for $2.7m.

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