On the QT: Which Main Beach apartments are now hot property?

NEW tower developments have failed to gain traction in Main Beach for years. But a new high-rise could be the multimillion-dollar drought-breaker the area needs, writes Quentin Tod.

A SITUATION which has seen buyers wanting new high-rise apartments at Main Beach effectively ‘beached’ for many years appears poised to end.

Not since a poorly-timed Macquarie Bank foray a decade ago has a new tower been launched in the suburb.

Now company Cityvest, owned by Paradise Waters resident Jonathan Drew and Casuarina-based James Adam, has spent more than $5 million on a site and has set out to become a drought-breaker.

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Cerulean tower proposed for Main Beach, Gold Coast

Yes, two boutique beachfront apartment buildings — not high-rises — have risen on Main Beach Pde but, with prices starting north of $3 million, they aren’t within most buyers’ price ranges.

The planned Cityvest project is a 15-level tower and the starting ‘ask’ for apartments is a more modest $1.215 million.

The Cerulean’s designed for purely owner-occupiers, not for investors, and apparently is drawing buyers despite little or no advertising.

The last time a new Main Beach high rise was marketed off the plan was in 2008, when Macquarie launched XXV, via company Main Beach Gold, as the GFC was starting.

The result was far from golden — the touted $51 million tower, completed in 2010, realised less than $40 million.

Main Beach has renewed interest from developers and the market Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

It seems the move by Cityvest to target Main Beach is a result of principals Jonathan and James deciding last year that the Brisbane market had peaked.

Prior to Cityvest, Jonathan was involved in office-building revamps in fringe areas of London and Brisbane and James was a project manager for a listed company.

Their 10-year-old Cityvest’s developed around 400 apartments in Brisbane in boutique-style projects of up to 11 levels.

At Main Beach, Cityvest has the suburb’s high-rise market to itself and there’s no sales opposition on the immediate horizon.

An elderly Brisbane couple aren’t going ahead with an approved Main Beach Pde tower and have been trying for some time to unload their site.

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The Winter group has aborted plans for a 47-floor hotel and apartment tower and is seeking the nod for a more modest one with just 21 levels.

Cityvest’s tower is earmarked for a 1012sq m site occupied by low-rise Worabinda in Pacific St, overlooking an arm of the Nerang River and Macintosh Park.

Cityvest’s principals possibly would call the building a lanky boutique one — it will have 29 apartments, including one sub-penthouse and a penthouse, and all with between two and four bedrooms.

Cerulean tower proposed for Main Beach, Gold Coast

The big owner-occupier focus is reflected in the provision of two parking spots, side-by-side, for each apartment, along with basement storage.

Then there are touches such as a yoga lawn, covered outdoor gym, and plumbed gas barbecues on balconies — along with body corporate fees of less than $90 a week.

Owners in Cerulean will have the nation’s richest man looking down on them — apartments king Harry Triguboff, with an estimated worth of $12.77 billion, owns the penthouse in the neighbouring Silverpoint tower.