Gold Coast resort prepares to reopen after coronavirus closure

Staff have been put to work at a leading Gold Coast resort as it prepares to re-open after its coronavirus-enforced shutdown. It comes as moves to put another well-known Coast property into liquidation failed.

CHEFS, kitchen-hands, housemaids and porters have been put to work painting a leading Gold Coast resort as it prepares to re-open after its coronavirus-enforced shutdown.

The family-friendly Paradise Resort in Surfers Paradise closed in March at the height of the COVID-19 crisis.

The resort’s new owner, colourful Sydney plastic surgeon and hotelier Dr Jerry Schwartz, made the best of the bad situation by embarking on a $12 million facelift of the property.

Hotel staff pitched in on the rejuvenation which includes a major upgrade of the children’s water park and lobby.

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All the hotel’s 360 rooms are also being redecorated and its exterior repainted in preparation for a planned August 1 reopening.

Paradise Resort general manager David Brook said it had been a ‘tumultuous time’ but Dr Schwartz – Australia’s largest private hotelier who bought the property for $43 million last November – had been able to bring forward the refurbishment in the face of the COVID-19 closure.

Sydney-based hotelier Dr Jerry Schwartz at his Paradise Resort in Surfers Paradise

“We’ve got the chefs, we’ve got the kitchen hands, we’ve got porters, we’ve got housemaids all on the end of brushes painting the exterior,” he said.

“The coronavirus is going to go away and we’re ready for it. We’re hoping to re-open on the first of August and we’re ready to take bookings.”

Meanwhile, a move to put the body corporate of the ‘six-star’ Palazzo Versace into liquidation has failed.

The Chinese-owned luxury Main Beach hotel closed last month and 250 staff were laid off without pay, despite having been told they could take holidays.

Palazzo Versace condominium owners called a crisis meeting last week to vote on a proposal to put the property’s body corporate company into liquidation due to “severe financial stress” allegedly being suffered by the hotel owners.

The Paradise Resort in Surfers Paradise is preparing to reopen

The vote failed but sources say a planned refurbishment of the hotel has not yet begun.

In a statement, a Palazzo Versace spokeswoman said it was working to resolve complaints from a ‘minority’ of condominium owners and the hotel would resume trading ‘as soon as possible’.

She dismissed reports that the hotel (bought for almost $70 million by China’s Dong Run group in 2012) was for sale and said allegations that the owner was spending money on major renovations ahead of employees’ entitlements were “untrue, deliberately hurtful and opportunistic”.

Originally published as Gold Coast resort prepares to reopen after coronavirus closure