Ritz Carlton Gold Coast: Big feature missing from $480m Spit hotel after being removed from plans

A key feature planned for the $480m Ritz Carlton hotel on The Spit has been removed, with the developer ruling out ever including it in the high-end precinct.

Plans allowing for a helicopter pad at The Spit as part of the Ritz Carlton Hotel project have been dumped, in what has been welcomed as a huge win for residents concerned about noise and safety.

Councillors at a full council meeting on Tuesday are expected to back the $480m redevelopment of the Mariner’s Cove precinct after officers at an earlier planning committee meeting recommended approval.

But there are big changes from the original plans which included add-ons to the six star resort including a marine amphitheatre and the mystery helicopter location.

Documents reveal the Gold Coast Waterways Authority in pre-lodgement meetings questioned “a large void within the marina plan that apparently has no purpose”.

Original plans for the Ritz Carlton Hotel project at Mariners Cove on the Gold Coast. The "void within the marina" was where a helicopter pad could have been built.

GCWA later learned the void “was the current site for the Gold Coast Helitours reception lounge, a floating two storey structure with rooftop helipad”.

Waterways staffers conducted a site inspection and asked for “the void” to be engineered out of the proposed development to offer greater number of berths for smaller vessels.

The hotel developers in their planning response said: “To alleviate any doubt, it can be unequivocally confirmed that Helicopter landings are NOT (sic) included within the proposed development or marina layout.”

City sources suggest the plan was “quickly abandoned” after the Waterways investigation and opposition from community groups strongly opposed to noise created by the helicopter flights.

Planning chair Mark Hammel at the planning committee meeting asked officers for an update and was told there would be no helicopter pad.

Dion Giannarelli, Ross Pelligra and Dean Giannarelli, the team behind the Ritz-Carlton Gold Coast project.

“There was a public interest in helicopter operations along the Spit, including interest I was aware of for this site in particular,” Mr Hammel said.

“While I was confident from my reading of the plans that there was no helicopter pad, I wanted officers on the record to confirm that.”

Giannarelli Group director Dion Giannarelli said: he could “unequivocally confirm that our development application does not include a helipad facility”.

“We have worked collaboratively with a number of government agencies, particularly the Gold Coast City Council to resolve some very complex issues with our project and we are assured that all stakeholder and community interests have been addressed during this time,” he said.

“We remain very positive that councillors will unanimously support our proposal, for what is arguably one of the best developments the Gold Coast has seen in many years.”

Mariners Cove at The Spit on the Gold Coast is the site for a new hotel resort, these are designs provided to council.

Main Beach Association leader Sue Donovan said her group was “greatly relieved” that no helipad would be allowed on the site.

“The noise and disturbance from Helitours at the Marina Mirage site is bad enough — and will be back to the bad old days now that the Chinese Government has announced that their citizens are once again permitted to visit Australia,” she said.

Councillors have been split about allowing the services sought out by international tourists.

The council in May approved a skydiving trial using helicopters on The Spit despite a protest by the MBA concerned about the fallout from one of the state’s worst aviation disasters.

Two Sea World Helicopters choppers collided during an afternoon flight over the Broadwater in January, killing four people and injuring nine.

“Following the tragic helicopter collision on January 2, people are much more aware of the potential danger of ­helicopter activity,” Ms Donovan said.

Public space areas as part of new designs for a hotel resort application for Mariners Cove at The Spit on the Gold Coast.

The Save Our Spit Alliance in a 2020 submission on the City Plan opposed existing and proposed commercial helicopter ‘joy’ flights, noting the noise, odour and aviation fuel and safety issues.

“The only takeoffs, landings and air flights permitted from and on The Spit must be restricted to medical emergencies and wild animal or human rescues,” SOS leader Steve Gration wrote.

Don Espey from the Coalition Against Environmental Noise Pollution agreed, saying hotels in the area were “constantly bombarded with noise akin to being in a war zone”.