Rainbow Bay luxury tower development approved by Gold Coast City Council for Eden Ave
The Gold Coast City Council has given approval for a $110m luxury unit tower to overlook one of the world’s most famous surf breaks on the Gold Coast
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The Gold Coast City Council has given approval for a $110m luxury unit tower to overlook one of the world’s most famous surf breaks.
The 12-storey Holm tower, put forward by development group Chapter Two, will be built on a 1924sq m site near Point Danger on Rainbow Bay’s Eden Ave. Its 86 units will watch over Snapper Rocks.
Council approved the tower this week after Chapter Two partners Jon Quayle and Oliver Bagheri fast-tracked the project to the market.
CBRE Gold Coast has been appointed to handle the sales campaign. Units will start from $800,000.
“Rainbow Bay is recognised as one of Australia’s premier beach destinations, north-facing like Noosa and Byron Bay but more accessible and attainable, with stunning lifestyle amenity, natural beauty and some of the coast’s best dining and entertainment,” Mr Quayle said.
“In all our developments, we love to showcase built form inspired by the natural beauty that surrounds it. Holm’s flowing curves, lush greenery, natural elements and light-filled spaces are timelessly Rainbow Bay.”
The tower will feature a mixture of two and three-bedroom apartments as well as two townhouses and a courtyard unit on the ground floor.
Chapter Two has a pipeline of 13 residential projects across Brisbane and the Gold Coast worth more than $300m.
Demand for apartments on the southern Gold Coast has never been stronger with the latest Urbis apartment essential report this month revealing the southern beaches market, which includes Coolangatta, remains in serious under-supply.
Just 45 units were on the market according to the most recent report.
Joint forces at play in southern Gold Coast development
The latest hunt for a development pot of gold beside the ocean at Coolangatta's Rainbow Bay is not what it first appeared to be – a one-man show.
Company Wally Development last month filed a development application for a 12-level tower on the bay’s high ground, close to the Greenmount Resort.
Wally’s owned by Lu Li, who arrived in the country as a teenager more than 30 years ago and went on to gain degrees in law and finance.
His family built the first Quest hotel in Brisbane.
It’s emerged that Lu’s far from flying solo at Rainbow Bay – his foray is via Brisbane company CapDev, in which he has teamed up with former corporate property players Jon Quayle and Oliver Bagheri.
CapDev also is not flying solo – it has a couple of Gold Coast property industry joint-venture partners, one being Joel and Laura Percey’s Kingabella group.
The other is Rob Steer’s Steer Developments, who is involved in plans to undertake a $50 million redevelopment of the Ashmore Steak and Seafood restaurant site.
It seems the three companies tied the development knot a year or so ago and quickly committed to boutique ventures at Palm Beach and Tugun.
The 94-apartment Rainbow Bay tower is earmarked for a four-title holding assembled over six months in Eden Ave, a one-way street.
The JV is believed to be paying $13 million or more for the land, which adjoins a site on which Christie Leet’s Sherpa group is building 16 homes.
The Arvia tower, where prices have topped $3 million, is nearby on the opposite side of Eden Ave and Brisbane architect Joe Adsett is planning a 13-floor tower, Rockpool, next to the Greenmount resort.
The CapDev team’s move comes as Paul Gedoun, the Brisbane developer whose already found a couple of pots of gold nearby with elite towers Flow and Point Danger’s Awaken, is well on the way to another win.
His Esprit, a $130 million venture which sits between Eden Ave and Boundary St, locked in $71 million of sales in its first weekend on the market.
The CapDev JV is cutting its Gold Coast teeth with Callista, four ‘beach houses’ at Palm Beach which start at $1.785 million.
The partners also are chasing approval for another six, starting at nearly $2 million, at Tugun.
Property insiders say the partners are negotiating over $20 million worth of new sites, including a waterfront one at Surfers Paradise and boutique one at Coolangatta.
Prices in the planned Rainbow Bay tower, which will include three town homes, have been tipped to start in the $800,000s.
The building, if it gets a planning green light, won’t be launched until next year and is likely, given the Gedoun success at Esprit, to have little new stock with which to compete.
Meanwhile, the three men behind CapDev have more to focus on than the Gold Coast joint ventures.
Their company says it has $250 million worth of its own projects across south-east Queensland and that it’s also backing other developers, builders and property-related businesses.
DEVELOPERS BLAMED FOR 'DEGRADING' COAST SUBURB
November 3, 2021
A SUSTAINABLE development group says it is tired of developers “degrading” their neighbourhoods and giving “nothing back to the community” with their over-the-top projects.
Gold Coast Community Alliance is furious over plans to build a 12-storey tower on a narrow residential lane in Rainbow Bay.
The 94-unit luxury complex has been put forward by Wally Development for Eden Ave, directly behind the Greenmount Resort, owned by developer Sunland Group.
The Brisbane-based Wally Development, headed by its sole director, 42-year-old Chinese-born businessman Lu Li, submitted its development application last week.
But Gold Coast Community Alliance president John Hicks says the project is far too big for such a narrow stretch of road.
Mr Hicks urged the Gold Coast City Council to weigh up the benefits to the public the tower would bring with its impact on the area.
“Our concern with the recent rate of approvals from council is with the excessive relaxations that facilitate overdevelopment of sites,” he said.
“One of the key issues is big buildings on sites which are obviously way too small for what is being proposed and that simply leads to the degradation of the neighbourhood and its character.
“None of these towers give anything back to the community and there is no benefit in them. They are solely there for the profits of the developer and that is not the balance we expect from the administrators of our city.”
The new tower is close to several other controversial high-rises, including the under-construction Awaken Residences, which replacing the Cafe Dbar building, and the Esprit tower on Boundary St.
Wally Development has argued to council that its tower is in line with Rainbow Bay being zoned for high-density development.
The tower will feature a mix of two and three-bedroom units and a double-storey basement carpark and roof terrace.
“The proposed development seeks to redevelop the property to ultimately allow for the creation of a new high-quality residential apartment building,” a planning report on the tower reads.
“The proposed building has been thoughtfully designed to engage the streetscape through substantial recess, variation and articulation through facade/material treatments to mitigate any potential overbearing bulk and scale.
“The architectural aspirations for the proposal are focused towards providing a vibrant and contemporary residential building that will reflect the iconic coastal location and consist of refined, carefully curated design elements.”
The project is likely to be assessed by the council early next year.
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