Gold Coast’s Palm Beach booming with development, eateries and celebrities

PALM Beach is the new Gold Coast hot spot with the southern Gold Coast suburb throwing off its old and stuffy reputation to become a funky and edgy suburb.

Palm Beach is being lauded as the Coast’s newest hotspot.

PALM Beach is the new Gold Coast hot spot with the southern Gold Coast suburb throwing off its old and stuffy reputation to become a funky and edgy suburb.

New mansions, developments restaurants and people are flowing into the suburb which has become a celebrity spotting hotspot as popular eateries draw in a younger crowd.

As development giant Palm Beach push ahead with its $136 million Magnoli Residences development on the suburb’s former caravan park site, other older buildings are being targeted for a refresh.

Among those is two residential properties on the corner of the Gold Coast Highway and Ninth Ave which are set to be replaced by a large three-storey high-end mansion with five bedrooms spread across two dwellings.

The project, which includes a swimming pool and rooftop deck, has been put forward by Clint and Brooke Colless, is the subject of a development application submitted to the council this week.

And development industry figures say it is just the beginning, with the light rail’s third stage likely to run through central Palm Beach, something which would drastically alter the suburb central business district.

Artist impression of a large two-dwelling building proposed for the Gold Coast Highway at Palm Beach

Area councillor Daphne McDonald said development of Palm Beach needed to be considered carefully to prevent damaging what made it popular in the first place.

She said Palm Beach was attractive to both locals and holiday-makers because of its points of difference from the traditional Glitter Strip locations.

“It is not the razzmatazz of Surfers Paradise and not as busy as Broadbeach but it is not far away from them either,” she said.

“We need to balance good development with services and you don’t want to destroy what you came to enjoy.

“There are lot of new business an restaurants coming here as well as a nice mixture of young people coming in too.”

Among the new businesses which have moved in during the past year is Hendrixx Espresso which opened in October.

It has already become a celebrity hotspot, with Thor star Mark Ruffalo, King Kong star John C Reilly and surfing superstar Mick Fanning all stopping in to enjoy coffee.

Operator Mark Neumann said Palm Beach was a “sleeping giant” which was waking up.

“It has changed massively as the land prices have started going up and there is a lot of new businesses moving,” he said.

Mark “Spike” Neumann posted this pic of himself and Mark ‘The Hulk’ Ruffalo at Hendrixx Espresso.

“It has benne a sleeping giant between the highways but it is certainly waking up.

“Palm Beach is a lot like Main Beach was in the 1980s and it has that funky feel about it.”

It comes just months after an application was made for a large-scale building which would include both businesses and residential areas.

The two-storey cafe and four-bedroom apartment proposed for Palm Beach’s Sixth Ave is currently being considered by council officers.

McGrath Palm Beach’s Laura Dean said excitement around the area was becoming “palpable”

Palm Beach is the Aussie dream, for me it evokes a lifestyle that is quickly being lost but in ‘Palmie’ you still get that cruiser, casual, beachside lifestyle that Aussies love and some people can only dream of now,” she said.

“ People have realised that this is one of the last suburbs on the coast where you can get this amazing mix of lifestyle and location, with the airport only 10-15 minutes away so if you get a hankering for a dose of ‘big city’ you can hop a flight.”