On the QT: ASF Group announces plans for lavish Surfers Paradise tower

Developers ASF Group have announced a boutique, 19-level tower in Surfers Paradise where the apartments are described as offering ‘lavish living for the elite few’.

THE ambitious ASF group is back in the market with an ultra-swish, concierge-serviced Surfers Paradise project it first attempted to woo buyers with five years ago.

The listed group, which was involved in a doomed $7.5 billion integrated resort tilt, has launched a new push to find wealthy people keen to reside in The AU Surfers Paradise.

The AU, Surfers Paradise render. Pic: Supplied

The planned boutique building’s apartments are described as offering ‘lavish living for the elite few’.

A mid-2022 construction start has been given for the 19-level golden tower, which will nestle between the Chateau and Grosvenor buildings on The Esplanade.

The starting price for its 14 apartments is less than it was in 2017, despite the city being in a hot market and construction costs having soared.

Five years ago the cheapest AU floor was $3.7 million – today the ‘low’ ask is $3.45 million.

That makes the building competitive with up-market towers on the beachfront in Northcliffe and Garfield terraces.

The AU’s to have 12 full-floor apartments and to be capped by two three-floor sky homes, each with a pool and recreation deck, that start at $9.38 million.

ASF perhaps hopes that a 24-hour concierge touch, providing ‘service and style on an epic scale’, might win some buyers.

The AU render. Picture: Supplied.

The group, which describes itself as a Sino-Australian trading house and has just chalked up a $6.1 million half-year loss, has made a ‘forced change’ to its marketing of the AU.

Nicolette van Wijngaarden, the Byron Bay founder of the Unique Estates agency who handled the 2017 sales effort, was jailed in 2019 for more than three years over a $3.69 million trust account fraud.

The AU’s site, which ASF at one time told shareholders was ‘right on Main Beach’, is one of two that the group owns overlooking the ocean in Surfers Paradise.

There’s no sign of any activity on the other one, which is immediately north of the Northcliffe Surf Club in Garfield Tce.

Four years ago it unveiled plans for a 31-level tower but later was hoping to add an adjoining property to its holding, obviously for a more ambitious project.

ASF, which has resources industry investments, has been on the Gold Coast for more than a decade but it hardly could be called a stunningly successful period.

The company, with some Chinese big-hitters as partners, was the preferred contender to build a $7.5 billion integrated resort taking in Wavebreak Island and some land on the Spit.

That plan was scuttled by the State Government and a later one to develop a $3 billion casino and resort on the Spit also failed to get an official nod.

There was some consolation – it scored millions of dollars in compensation from the government for the expense incurred in the Wavebreak tilt.

There has been a ray of light for ASF on the Gold Coast, more specifically at Hope Island.

The group for some time has earning marketing fees on a gated community called The Peninsula on a 5.7ha waterfront site and involving land, townhouses and apartments.

In Surfers, its AU site covers 506 sqm site and was bought for $1.95 million in 2013.

ASF’s Garfield Tce holding is slightly larger at 607 sqm and cost $4.86 million in 2016.

In land value terms, the group has come up trumps on that holding.

Nearby beachfront land has been selling at north of $20,000 a square metre, making the ASF ‘plot’ potentially worth $12 million or more.

Meanwhile, there’s no sign of ASF firing up another approved Au project, this one in Southport and with a 60-level tower as its centrepiece.