Surfers entertainment centre could see ratepayers $75 million bill

An entertainment hall planned for Surfers Paradise is going to come at a major cost to ratepayers. Here’s who is pushing for it.

An entertainment hall is planned for Surfers Paradise. How much is this going to cost you, as a ratepayer? And who on your council is pushing for this town hall style venue?

This proposal made a stunning late appearance as an agenda item at the most recent full council meeting after councillors discussed it in closed session.

A super majority of councillors backed a recommendation for a further investigation and detailed design work. The initial budget allocation is $200,000.

Designs show a main hall with a capacity of 2800 and outdoor garden for food and beverage at the Surfers Paradise Transit Centre – it will be the size of the Fortitude Music Hall in Brisvegas.

Renders of a Gold Coast City Council proposal to redevelop the Surfers Paradise Transit Centre into a town hall style venue

Many business leaders are speculating it is being pushed by Mayor Tom Tate and area councillor Darren Taylor.

But the Mayor was not at the meeting, and cannot be involved in future debate due to conflicts with his investments at the neighbouring Surfers Paradise Bowls Club site.

Sources confirm this is an idea from “the administration” – investment officers are being told to explore commercial opportunities.

Get rid of old buildings, create new community spaces. Cr Taylor spoke briefly about the venue helping revitalise Surfers Paradise.

In decades past there were theatres at the southern end towards the Nerang River, and a town hall would push more patrons late at night north into Cavill Mall.

“This will activate Surfers Paradise in a big way. I think it will be the trigger for the revitalisation of Surfers Paradise and bring people back into the city,” Cr Taylor said.

Renders of a Gold Coast City Council proposal to redevelop the Surfers Paradise Transit Centre into a town hall style venue

But Helensvale-based councillor William Owen-Jones, who has accountant’s eye for detail, was the only representative to vote in the negative.

“I think there is very much a focus on cost of living and what that means to our ratepayers. We have enormous amount of competing interests for the ratepayer dollar,” he said.

He added that the City was already exploring an indoor boutique stadium, the expansion of the convention centre and more upgrades of HOTA.

So how much will this Surfers project cost? This remains confidential.

A building industry source aware of the site says the town hall venue can be built on top of the existing structure, retaining all the bus parking and tenancies below.

His estimate is between $50 million and $75 million.

Cr William Owen-Jones — concerned about ratepayer costs. Picture: Jerad Williams.

But there are engineering challenges – the centre is linked to the Bruce Bishop car park.

Photographs provided to your columnist recently showed major structural repair work being undertaken by contractors at that site. A bill to repair beams and stop concrete cancer is $2.8 million.

All up $881,770 was budgeted for the next 12 months but the decision in January by a majority of councillors to reject selling the asset forced the city to deal with repair work.

But my source says: “The real estimate is it will take between $10 million to $30 million to repair (the car park) – that’s five years of repairs.”

So the overall bill to you as a ratepayer could be $100 million. Which begs a final question. Would it not be commercially smarter to consider a private-public funded development on this site, which retains the public car parks but creates a much bigger entertainment centre?

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