Gold Coast development: Developers buy proposed Sorrento high-care residential village site on Bundall Road

Sydney developers are stepping in and changing the game at a high-profile Sorrento site on a high-traffic road which was once planned for a high-care residential village.

Sydney developers are stepping in and changing the game at a high-profile Sorrento site on a high-traffic road in the wake of the RSL ‘retiring’.

They have earmarked apartments and villas for the waterfront Bundall Rd land on which the RSL six years ago won a green light for a high-care residential village.

Leith Group Developments, which has a tower project on the boil close to the ocean in Surfers Paradise, has a deal to buy the site from the RSL, apparently for around $10 million.

Leith, owned by David Azar and Malcolm Devin, is chasing approval to build a three-level project at the head of a canal.

Sorrento Quays.

It would be purely residential, with 39 townhouses and 22 units.

The Leith plan is the latest chapter in a story that first unfolded in 2015 and involved a fellow who’s long been a player in the Gold Coast development game.

Mark Howard diligently amalgamated seven houses, three of them in Binda Place and one in Boomerang Cres.

The exercise cost $7.31 million in 2015 and the 6414 sqm site was held by WH Sorrento, a company owned by Brisbane investment adviser Dominic Cronk and Burleigh resident Alan Davie.

Plans were unveiled for a $45 million, 81-apartment venture aimed at offering over-70s to remain independent as long as possible.

Sorrento Quays, adjacent to the Sorrento Village shops,

was to include in-house dining and a hair salon and to have a caretaker and in-house manager.

Residents were to have an opportunity to ‘throw a fishing line in the canal’.

Binda artist impressions

The plan, cut back to 77 units, won approval but did not eventuate and the ‘Quays’ were passed to RSL Care for $8.85 million six years ago.

RSL Care wanted to use the approval to target downsizing retirees but in 2022 it walked away from the idea and put the land, with the majority of the houses demolished, on the market.

New owner Leith is out to have the plan changed, chopping nearly 3000 sqm off the gross floor area – it’s version won’t need communal space – and slightly lowering the height.

The number of ‘homes’ wrapping around the head of the canal, all two or three-bedroom, would fall from 77 to 60 – 39 townhouses and 21 units.

It’s unlikely the age of the residents won’t be quite in the RSL league – the average age in its mooted high-care community was expected to be 78.

Leith group's Fern St tower.

Leith is no stranger to low-rise projects or to high-rise either – one Sydney venture involved five 20-storey towers housing close to 1000 apartments.

It’s also shown its flair in land subdivisions and luxury homes.

The company’s Surfers Paradise venture is in Fern St where it’s earmarked the 1378 sqm site that houses the Halcyon Place low-rise for a 27-floor tower with 96 apartments.

Three of the apartments in the building, which is yet to win; planning approval, are intended to be multi-level skyhomes.

Leith has a foot in the door at three-level Halcyon Place, which is close to the southern end of Garfield Terrace, adjoins the adjoins the eight-floor Emerald Sands building, and is near the beachfront Dorchester and Surfers Aquarius towers.

It bought one of the 12 units for $1 million in the middle of 2022.

RAPTIS TOWER AMBITION

Jim Raptis.

Jim Raptis, a never-say-die high-rise developer, has revealed that his public face, the listed Raptis Group, might be heading back to the tower business after a 15-year lull.

The ASX has been told that the group’s been undertaking feasibility work with possible joint venture and funding partners over a Gold Coast resort tower project.

The last tower venture by the Raptis Group, which spent most of its cash last year buying management rights to two of 77-year-old Jim’s privately-built high-rises, involved the Hilton project in Surfers Paradise.

MORRIS THE MAIN MAN

Chris Morris, a co-founder of the listed Computershare group and a fellow with a taste for luxury, has emerged as the buyer who’s pipped billionaire Bob Ell in the quest for a Main Beach penthouse.

He’s paid $9.1 million for the apartment atop five-level beachfront building Ocean Resort, apparently at least $100,000 more than offered by Bob, who controls three of building’s six titles.

Chris is paying $19 million for two floors in the Amani tower, which is underway on the resort’s southern side, and might be intent on not losing his northern views if the Ocean Resort site was to be redeveloped.