Cairns tower development: Deeb family reverts to 12-storey apartment plan

The fickle nature of large-scale development in Cairns is on display after one of the city’s biggest projects went within an ant’s whisker of being bought.

THE fickle nature of large-scale development in Cairns is on display after one of the city’s biggest projects went within an ant’s whisker of being bought.

Brothers John and Michael Deeb are the big-hitters behind a swanky proposed 12-storey apartment tower on the Cairns Esplanade.

Their family has a long history of business success in the Far North after their forebears migrated from Lebanon in 1926.

Most notably they were longtime owners of the Acacia Court Hotel, which sold to Hong Kong developer Benny Wu in 2013.

Their 191-193 Esplanade tower proposal got the green light from Cairns Regional Council in 2019 – but a rather confusing shake-up has ensued.

The brothers lodged new smaller-scale plans that reduced the tower to eight storeys last year, but it was a very short-lived affair.

The reason has now become clear.

A new development application has been submitted to cancel the eight-storey approvals and revert to the much more impressive 12-storey predecessor.

It is a head-spinning situation, but there is method to the madness.

“The applicant recently received interest from a prospective purchaser of the site,” the latest planning documents reveal.

“However, a condition of the contract was to allow this purchaser the ability to … reduce the overall yield through the reduction in the number of apartments and storeys, which was approved in November 2021.

“Despite this prospective buyer having the minor change approved, the contract fell through and the original owners now wish to revert to the approved development on the site back to that permitted under the 2019 approval, ie back to 22 apartments and 12 storeys.”

The council is yet to decide on the matter.

Whether the Deebs will see the project through to construction or seek to offload it to a cashed-up developer remains to be seen.

However, they do have a history of finding business elites to take over their most coveted properties.

The businessmen previously had council approvals to build a multistorey private carpark on a block bordered by Abbott, Aplin and Lake streets.

That property is now home to Crystalbrook Collection’s Bailey hotel, care of Syrian billionaire investor Ghassan Aboud.

Originally published as Cairns tower development: Deeb family reverts to 12-storey apartment plan