How Aquis did deal to land prime Surfers Paradise tower Pacific Point

IT’S the prime Surfers Paradise tower that’s had developers swooping for years. But it was a nightmare job to negotiate buying from 17 owners. This is how Aquis did it and how much the owners were paid.

Pacific Point is set to become a six-star hotel built by Aquis. Photo: Supplied

PACIFIC Point, an apartment tower overlooking the beach at the northern end of Surfers Paradise, was at one time a serious target for Palazzo Versace developer the Sunland Group.

That’s one of the sidelights that’s emerged in the wake of the 17-unit building being bought four weeks ago by Hong Kong billionaire Tony Fung and his Aquis group, who have six-star hotel plans.

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It seems that at the end of the last property boom, Sunland zeroed in on the potential of the Pacific Point site, which has unobstructed views over the beach and ocean and is a stroll from both central Surfers and Main Beach.

Pacific Point will make way for Aquis’s planned 45-level construction.

The group, which apparently had high-rise ambitions, managed to get the agreement of most, if not all, all Pacific Point owners to sell.

Then, when what evolved into the GFC emerged, it pulled the pin on the buyout.

Sunland wasn’t the first corporate kid on the Pacific Point block — Don O’Rourke’s Consolidated Properties previously had eyed the tower.

Proposed Aquis Pacific Point in Surfers Paradise.

Since the end of the GFC, the 37-year-old building has caught the attention of other developers and amalgamation ‘gurus’.

A company which some Pacific Point owners believe was linked to developer Jim Raptis at one point signed up for one of the Pacific Point apartments — perhaps to stymie other amalgamation contenders — but the deal didn’t go ahead.

Also known to have had a taste for Pacific Point is the Mii group, headed by the Peter Madrers-Paul Brinsmead team who, prior to the GFC, headed Resort Corp.

Pacific Point at Surfers Paradise. Picture: Jerad Williams

The ‘suitor’ list apparently also included property agency Canford, which put together the nearby Banyan Tree site, and a Brisbane party.

At the end of the day, all this interest probably did the man who eventually ‘bagged’ all 17 apartments a favour.

Greg Benneworth, by the time he started on his amalgamation exercise early last year, was dealing with owners who were well-conditioned to dealing with developers and agents with high ambitions.

The proposed Aquis Pacific Point in Surfers Paradise.

Greg apparently took six months to option up the Pacific Point apartments and also added the two villas in the dual-level Valdara Court building on the southern side of the tower.

The ‘deals’ then were moved over to the Aquis group, where Greg is real estate director.

Aquis, ahead of paying for its purchases, went on to get approval for a 45-level, six-star hotel on what is a 1682sq m site.

Aquis plans to build a six-star hotel on the site.

Payday was in the latter part of July and the purchases all had to be settled contemporaneously for Aquis to go ahead.

The upshot was that Aquis spent around $24 million and the 17 owners in Pacific Point and the two in Valdara Court received from around $550,000 to $2.7 million for their properties.

Just who got the top money has not emerged but Pacific Point penthouse owners Trevor and Trudie Atherton no doubt did well.

They bought their apartment for $456,000 in 2001 and only three years ago were aspiring to achieve $1.75 million for it.