Star of the Sea: Southport site placed on the market by Chinese owner Garuda GC Corporation

A big change is coming to a key development site which has been earmarked for a $1bn project and was once considered as the site of a second Gold Coast casino. FIND OUT MORE

A ‘star’ in the property market has appeared on the sales horizon in a move that could end a near $30 million, 10-year investment by a Chinese group.

A campaign to sell the former Star of the Sea holding, which overlooks the Broadwater and is easily the best development site in Southport, has quietly started.

The elevated Marine Pde holding has previously been mooted as the site of a project potentially worth $1 billion or more – one that could add some vibe to the heart of Southport.

The 1.378ha site, once seen as a potential second casino location, is in the suburb’s height-free Priority Development Area.

That said, nothing has reached for the sky since the Star of the Sea buildings were demolished in 2016.

Aerial photograph of the Star of the Sea site in Southport.

The owner is tipping the holding into the market at a time when the tower industry has its problems and when money has become more expensive.

That owner is Garuda GC Corporation, an arm of Chinese group Huixin Real Estate, and it signed up for the Star property, opposite the Southport aquatic centre, for $27.26 million in 2013 and paid for it the following year.

Garuda director Liyun Cao, in the same month that the company committed to the Star site, bought a waterfront home in Southport.

The Star of the Sea seller was the Order of The Sisters of Mercy Queensland, which had occupied the land for 55 years.

the Star of the Sea buildings were demolished in 2016 Picture by Scott Fletcher

Garuda didn’t stop at the Star site, adding adjoining buildings at the head of Nerang St and taking its outlay to $33.8 million.

Those two-level properties are not part of the sell-off effort.

Garuda, early on in its foray, gained preliminary development approval for a mixed-use project that would have high-rises, a hotel, offices, and shops and a pedestrian link to Nerang St.

The Star project was expected to include restaurants, bars and al fresco dining, along with an art laneway.

A time capsule was found and pulled from the ground during the demolition of the Star of the Sea catholic school in Southport. Picture by Scott Fletcher

In 2016 the company mounted a search, one that went international, for a development partner for a site that was described as a blank canvas – one that ‘deserves a standout partner’.

At the time there was speculation that any partner would have to ‘buy in’ for around $30 million, which meant the whole site would be valued at $60 million.

Garuda didn’t come up trumps and later put the project on hold until after the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The man who sold the Star site to Garuda, Canford Real Estate’s Roland Evans, has been given the job of marketing the holding.

The site has been empty for many years. Picture Glenn Hampson

Garuda’s move to exit its big-ticket holding comes as high-rise developers on the Gold Coast are battling construction costs.

They are also facing a scarcity of builders willing and able to take on major projects.

The upshot is that some approved projects are not going ahead and either are being put on hold or the sites, sometimes discreetly, placed on the market.

The major player in the city’s tower construction business, Hutchinson Builders, has been pulling its horns in on the Gold Coast.

That’s unsurprising given that top man Scott Hutchinson last month described the Gold Coast as ‘problematic’.

“Nothing stacks up on Goldie at the moment. Building prices are too high.”

BEACHFRONT SALE

Alan Thiess, a son of construction giant the late Sir Leslie Thiess, could be an interested observer when a house he built in Mermaid Beach’s Multi-Millionaires’ Row decades ago goes under the hammer next month.

The three-level home spans three lots on a northeastern corner in Hedges Ave and is being sold by divorcee David Kennedy, who at one point intended demolishing it.

The street’s beachfront land record hit $23,703 a square metre earlier this year, which means a new owner of the Kennedy property could pay well north of its $20 million rateable land value.

BRONTE TO GOLD COAST

Mark East, a highly-rated stockpicker who last year bought an $18.3 million home overlooking the ocean at Bronte in Sydney, has decided that adding a spot by the beach on the Gold Coast also isn’t a bad idea.

The chief investment officer at Bennelong Australian Equity Partners has paid $5.6 million for an older-style home, with a shop at the front, in Currumbin’s seafront Pacific Pde.

The building, on a near 500 sqm site, was constructed in the 1920s as a general store and has been in one family for the past 66 years.

BIG KAHUNA

Michael Agnew, who heads a NSW group with interests in everything from building supplies to landscaping and hotels, has made a $13.46 million Gold Coast buy.

Michael, know to Agnew Group staff as the Big Kahuna, has bought the 1.3ha A1 Hire site at Arundel and is operating it as an Agnew Hire outlet.

The sale of the Arundel site, in Wrights Place, was a major win for Iranian-born investor and Merrimac resident Cyrus Mollaian, whose company International Palace bought it for $2.5 million in 2014.

.