Consortium sets out resort and marina vision for Shute Harbour Marina Resort in Whitsundays
A group of businessmen are planning an ambitious $350m resort for Shute Harbour in what will be the first major hotel and marina precinct to be launched in the Whitsundays in 20 years.
In the first major accommodation and marina precinct to be launched in Queensland’s Whitsundays in two decades, a group of Adelaide-based businessmen are planning an ambitious $350m resort development in Shute Harbour.
The project aims to transform the coastal township, near popular Airlie Beach, into a world-class destination with a new resort hotel and residential precinct with restaurants and retail outlets, as well as a 395-berth marina.
However, funding for the project, to be called the Shute Harbour Marina Resort – comprising 58 managed resort dwellings, each with their own private marina berths of 25m-35m at their owners’ doorstep, as well as a 100-unit managed apartment block plus a 100-plus room hotel – is yet to be secured.
One of the scheme’s proponents, chartered accountant Sam Wade, said the consortium would seek funding once a certain amount of dwellings had sold off the plan.
“We have completed a comprehensive development, construction and pricing schedule to undertake the first stage of the marina and the reclamation of the land,” Mr Wade said.
“We are undertaking the first stage utilising the services of East Coast Civil, which is one of our consortium partners, and we have priced in rising costs based on what we need for stage one.
“East Coast Civil is ready to begin with its teams once we have met the pre-sales targets that we are confident of achieving based on recent inquiry. We envisage that it will be two to three years before the first homes are built and we expect there should be a rectification of construction costs in that time frame.”
The project, which also includes a multi-use marina on a 28ha waterfront site, will tap into a shortage of secure boat moorings in the state’s north, according to the consortium members, which also include Mark Daniels, Mark McLachlan and Greg Phillips.
The Shute Harbour Marina Resort will also include a new commercial hub as part of a masterplanned marina plaza, with new retail and commercial outlets for the waterfront development.
Marina berths will range from 10m-35m for mono and multihull craft, while the proposed land and berth packages will include marina facilities to accommodate boats up to 35m. Berths are priced between $175,000 and $1m, with each berth sold on a 99-year lease.
Stage one will offer residential waterfront sites of 440sq m that are earmarked for two and three-storey design concepts.
Land-and-berth prices start from $1.75m, which includes the provision of the marina berth. Construction of the dwelling will be borne by the purchaser.
Expressions of interest are also being taken on future stages, which will include marina loft apartments and plaza terrace homes.
Development of the first stage of Shute Harbour Marina Resort, which will include the marina and the stage-one release of land and marina berths, is expected to take two years to complete.
Construction is targeted to begin in 12 months.
Shute Harbour Marina Resort has taken 15 years to gain all necessary approvals to proceed and was identified as a project of significance by the Queensland government in 2006.
The consortium holds a development lease with the Queensland government and, once the marina is constructed, it will have title over waterfront land lots and be able to sell these as freehold. The marina berths are on 99-year leases as the sea bed can’t be freehold titles as it is commonwealth land.
The consortium members said they had a combined 70 years’ experience in the development industry with the delivery of projects worth $1.25bn. These have included the Encounter Lakes, Encounter Bay South Australia regional residential development set around a saltwater self-flushing lake as well as Holdfast Shores, in the upmarket Adelaide suburb of Glenelg.