Mermaid Beach residents fear tower development and light rail extension will destroy their suburb
The Gold Coast Highway in Broadbeach and Mermaid Beach has become a boulevard of broken dreams for developers whose projects failed to rise from the ground. FIND OUT WHY
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THE Gold Coast Highway runs the length of the Glitter Strip and is the spine of the city’s development zone.
As a major arterial road and the location of the light rail and its future route, it is a magnet for development up and down the coastline.
But for some developers it has proven to be a boulevard of broken dreams over the decades as some projects were greenlit, while others fell by the wayside.
The Bulletin this week revealed prolific developer Aniko Group was planning a $1bn, four-tower mega project next to the Gold Coast’s biggest shopping centre.
The resort-style project is earmarked for a 1.1342ha site at Seaview Ave next to Pacific Fair Shopping Centre and the Broadbeach public transport hub and will provide more than 1000 units for the city’s depleted stocks.
According to plans which will be lodged with the Gold Coast City Council later this year, the “micro-community”, which will border Broadbeach and Mermaid Beach, includes a “premium” masterplanned residential, hotel, waterfront dining and office development.
Residents of Broadbeach and Mermaid Beach expressed mixed feelings about the rising wave of development around the tram route, something industry figures only expect to escalate in coming years as the city’s population grows.
Despite being the location of the city’s first hotel tower, development has long been controversial in Broadbeach and Mermaid Beach.
Back in 1986 the plan to redevelop the old Broadbeach International Hotel into what is today the Oasis Shopping Centre and mall.
The objections, lodged with council by residents in Charles Ave, warned their street would become a “traffic nightmare from vehicles using a drive-in bottle shop, parking areas and loading ramps” while their outlook would be “disfigured” by three levels of carparking and a bottle shop.
The objections failed to halt the redevelopment or the arrival of the Broadbeach monorail.
Jumping forward to the early 2000s, the state government’s plans to build the future Gold Coast Convention and exhibition centre, drew flak from residents who feared it would bring “financial ruin” to nearly shop owners impacted by its construction.
In 2005 the council’s planning committee approved Niecon developer Con Nikiforides’ twin-tower project CBD – Central Beach Development, later renamed Oracle.
The project drew heated criticism from area councillor Eddy Sarroff who attacked it for being 20-storeys higher than the area’s height limit.
Cr Sarroff said the towers’ approval meant the sky was the limit for Broadbeach developments.
“This really sets a precedent for any future developers to come in and build 60 or 70-storey towers,’’ he said.
“What is the point of setting up town planning rules if we’re only going to break them.’’
Cr Sarroff also attacked Meriton boss Harry Triguboff’s 2006 plans for a twin-tower, H-shaped high-rise, a project which was also built despite his opposition.
While these projects prevailed against protests, others were not so lucky.
Developer John Potter has repeatedly attempted to redevelop the Main Place precinct which fronts the Highway in central Broadbeach.
The nine-title block was assembled slowly by Mr Potter between 2004 and 2008.
The original Main Place project was lodged with council in 2010 and approved under a court order in 2013.
Under that proposal, it was to be a 52-storey mixed-use tower with 520 units, a 173 suite resort hotel, offices, cafes, restaurants, commercial services and a carpark.
However, the project stalled and never went ahead.
In late 2018 he unveiled plans for Central on Broadbeach, two 68-storey supertowers which would have had room for nearly 1500 residents.
However, this project too failed to eventuate and the site was put on the market again in 2021.
The future site of the new Aniko project has also long been dogged by failed attempts to redevelop and transform it.
Developer Mark Howard in the late 2000s pitched plans for a $300m lifestyle centre which was to have a $170 million 40-storey tower at its heart, including 132 apartments, cafes, restaurants, a medical centre and office space.
However, Mr Howard’s companies were placed in receivership in April 2012 and he successfully sold it for $20m to Singaporean group Ho Bee Investment.
Another Howard project, a 28-storey tower affectionately known by city leaders as “Blade Runner” and earmarked on the site of Mermaid Beach stalled.
Ho Bee never announced any intention to develop the site and finally put it on the market in April 2017. However, it failed to find a buyer despite several expressions of interest campaigns. It sold the site to Aniko for $30m this year.
‘Ruining our suburb’: Fears towers will trash exclusive enclave
MERMAID Beach residents are divided over development plans seeking to bring high-rise buildings to the “quiet” up-market suburb.
With Aniko Group unveiling plans for a $1bn four-tower mega project, locals have argued that relaxing property building caps could ruin the suburban lifestyle that Mermaid Beach is renowned for.
While others the Bulletin spoke to said the development was long overdue for the area.
“I’ve been living here for two years now and what I love is the quiet suburb, but with the construction, you can’t get any peace,” Macarena Balbis, 26, said.
Ms Balbis, who is originally from Argentina said the promise of a “quiet” and “community-focused” lifestyle is what drew her to settle in Mermaid Beach. But since moving into the area, she’s seen an increase in property development across the suburb, including a construction site operating next door to her house.
“The noise is terrible, but even local cafes are finding it hard to deal with the construction – not many people can go out and walk or relax,” Ms Balbis said.
According to her, the development of high-rise buildings in the area was also unnecessary.
“The suburb is perfect as it is, what I enjoy is the nature, being able to see the beach and this area is already convenient – I really don’t want high rise buildings because then it ruins the beautiful nature – it’s so sad,” she said.
It’s a sentiment that Sabela Ulloa, 23, also shares.
After moving into the area three months ago, Ms Ulloa said what she enjoys is the “calm” lifestyle that Mermaid Beach provides. She said easy access to the beach and low population density also made it a perfect place to raise a family.
“The good part about Miami Beach is that it’s not like Surfer’s Paradise – here it’s more family houses, you can wake up and go for a walk by the beach and go to cafes,” she said.
For years, Gold Coast City Council capped property development in Mermaid Beach to maintain the low-rise style of the area. But the push to relax the limits has upset residents, including Lauren Randall.
“No one’s going to be happy about relaxing the building caps because Mermaid Beach is so sought after for it’s suburban feel rather than being like Surfers (Paradise) – it’s nice that it’s a little less populated through here,” Ms Randall, 35 said.
But according to residents like Simon Murfet, 26, watching the community change was a non-issue compared to the potential benefit of developing hotels and homes to address the city’s housing crisis.
“For me, I’d like to see the area stay the same but development will create more homes so it’s good – it might make it more expensive to live here but I think we kind of need (the development),” he said.
And after living in the area for over 30 years, Noel Stewart, 73, said the spate of construction and upcoming development was a welcome sign for a suburb he believes should be a “thriving” hot spot of tourism and hospitality.
“I’ve seen this area change a lot for the better, so it’s fantastic if the high risers are coming here,” he said.
“I’m for progress, obviously with limits, but at the end of the day I’m happy to see Mermaid get a little bit better – make it more exciting, give it more restaurants and good entertainment.”
MERMAID BEACH’S TRANSFORMATION ONLY THE BEGINNING
DEVELOPERS are circling the exclusive suburb of Mermaid Beach in a bid to scoop up sites in one of the Gold Coast’s final frontiers for large beachside tower projects.
A raft of new towers have been proposed for the area in the past year, with its first high-rise – Sunland Group’s 272 Hedges Ave – recently completed.
But with big-name developers including Harry Triguboff and Tim Gurner snapping up remaining sites in Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach, others are now eyeing off the streets around Peerless Ave, the southernmost street within the unlimited height restriction zone.
And there’s more to come.
CBRE Gold Coast managing director of Mark Witheriff said the city’s rapidly growing population and a lack of available sites meant developers were looking at sites around Mermaid Beach and Mermaid Waters.
“The developers at the moment are paying attention to the weight of people who are still coming to the Gold Coast and the significant shortfall in residential accommodation,” he said.
“The only way this city can make any impact on this shortfall is to get developments of (larger) scale.
“Not everyone can afford to live on the beach side of the (Gold Coast) Highway, so these developments are all about amenity in terms of cost and that is what will make it work because (residents) will be able to catch the tram to their office or restaurants.”
Among the largest in the new generation of towers proposed is Peerless, a $255m, 36-storey luxury skyhome high-rise which will be built over the city’s most expensive mansions on Hedges Ave by Sunland founder Soheil Abedian.
Mr Abedian, the man who built Q1 and the Palazzo Versace, will partner on the project with his son, architect Tom Jamieson.
The city’s accommodation squeeze has worsened in the past two years on the back of a Covid-inspired migration to the sunshine state.
An apartment essentials report by property consulting firm Urbis, earlier this year warned
there was just 2.3 months of supply remains if new projects were not launched.
The Coast’s population is now expected to top 1 million people by 2041.
However not everyone is welcoming the changes.
Long-serving Mermaid Beach Community Association president Alf Vockler said many of the area’s residents were unhappy with the changes to their suburb and concerned for the future.
“I just want to know what any changes to the City Plan will mean for us and if we are going to see another street taken for high-rises which wills ti right across the road from people’s houses,” he said.
“We are also seeing towers being snuck in as people propose four-storey buildings which then turn into unit buildings.”
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