Surfers Royale, the Garfield, Anglesea Court: Apartment buildings snapped up in Surfers

Developers have been chasing major sites in the Surfers Paradise area, chequebooks at the ready. FIND OUT WHICH ONES >>

THE scope of the burgeoning high-rise site amalgamation business has widened – it’s moved into the rather salubrious riverfront suburb of Paradise Waters.

The target is a near 40-year-old low-rise called Kings Row, which sits on a generous 4397sq m site fronting an inlet off the Nerang River.

The Polites Property Group has lobbed in what it might view as a handsome offer for the 35-title Kings Row, $24 million.

It’s also having a crack at buying what might be Main Beach’s oldest apartment tower, Amira.

In the Amira case, it’s hoping $20 million will tempt the owners of the 26 apartments to sell out.

That tilt, like the Kings Row one, also has a royal twist – amira in Arabic means princess.

The Polites forays come as developers have been chasing major sites in the Surfers Paradise area, chequebooks at the ready.

The Kings Row North building at Paradise Waters. Picture Glenn Hampson

Three ageing beachfront apartment buildings on the southern side of Surfers have been bought – Surfers Royale, the Garfield and Anglesea Court.

A beachfront site nearby is believed to be under contract for around $30 million.

At Main Beach, car dealer Greg Eastment has assembled a beachfront corner, home to a building called Four Corners, at a suburb record of more than $20,000 a square metre.

Amalgamation adventurer the Polites group is no stranger to Main Beach – it has assembled a site on the ‘dry’ side of Main Beach Pde and is undertaking a 29-level tower, La Mer, in tandem with a partner.

The group’s headed by identical twins Marcus and Alex Polites, grandsons of South Australian property heavyweight the late Con Polites.

The Polites group’s played in the amalgamation puddle on the Gold Coast previously, missing out on a Palm Beach holding when a partner didn’t perform.

The Kings Row North building at Paradise Waters. Picture Glenn Hampson

It subsequently teamed up with a Kiwi-linked group to embark on Cabana, a sellout tower being built at Palm Beach, and has a Runaway Bay venture up its sleeve.

The Paradise Waters property in the Polites sights is one of three adjoining Kings Rows built by the late Ron McMaster in Commodore Drive in the early 80s.

All three are on handsome sites of more than 4400sq m and Polites has picked the easier one in terms of an amalgamation exercise.

The other two – South and Centre – are taller buildings that each are home to 65 apartments.

All three Kings Row holdings are on land zoned high density and are in an area that has the Grand Mariner, Atlantis and Nelson towers.

Amira, at Main Beach, sits on 1606sq m site and is in a strip laced with high rises.

It’s on the corner of Main Beach Pde and Cable Street, has the Silverpoint building on its northern side, and a tower called Midwater is planned to the south.

Polites, in the case of Kings Row, is targeting a building in which the owners have paid between $70,000 and $550,000 -- its offer is at an average $685,000 an apartment.

At Amira, the owners have bought in at from $67,000 (in 1980) to $1.1 million – the price paid last year for the penthouse.

The Kings Row North building at Paradise Waters. Picture Glenn Hampson

The Polites offer is at an average $770,000.

JANE Kingston, who dropped a verbal bombshell early this year when running the Palace Versace hotel on the Southport Spit, is back in the workforce.

She quit her Versace job in May and has popped up as the director of national hospitality recruitment group Hospoworld’s NSW agency.

In January, she said she’d rather be doused in petrol and set alight than deal with abuse from the wealthy owners of the condos that adjoin the hotel.

WENDA Wu, a Sydney investor who in 2018 paid $30.5 million for the Tiki Village resort in Surfers Paradise, is believed to be doing some homework on building a tower on the property’s riverfront.

The Kings Row North building at Paradise Waters. Picture Glenn Hampson

The 6070sq m three-title Tiki site has an eight-level former timeshare building on its eastern end two single-level buildings on its riverfront western side, and a 1472sq m riverbed lease.

Industry sources say Wenda might be looking to capitalise on the site’s unlimited height zoning.

ALLAN and John Sammut, the developers of fast-selling tower Coast, to be built on the Surfers Paradise beachfront, have much bigger fish to fry in their hometown Sydney.

They’ve assembled a $100 million-plus site in Cronulla and plan a $350 million project called Vue, which is intended to revitalise the suburb’s CBD.

Their partner in the venture, as with Coast, is funder Alceon, which is behind Robina’s Acuity Business Park.