Gold Coast development: Main Beach’s Lagoon tower approved by council
The largest Main Beach project to be built in 30 years has been given the green light, ushering in a major revamp for the beachside suburb.
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THE largest Main Beach project to be built in 30 years has been given the green light.
Drew Group’s plans to build its twin-tower Lagoon project was approved this week under delegated authority.
Construction of the towers, 31 and 23-storeys respectively, is expected to start next year. They will have more than 250 units.
Drew Group managing director Jonathan Drew, a resident of Main Beach, vowed the project would have a “positive impact” on the suburb.
“Lagoon is inspired by the sun-soaked charm of Palm Springs combined with timeless elegance to provide a collection of residences that effortlessly mirror the cosmopolitan coastal lifestyle the suburb of Main Beach provides,” he said.
“The sister towers have been positioned on the site to maximise the surrounding ocean, hinterland and Broadwater vistas with resident’s privy to a collection of high-quality lifestyle amenities that elevates Lagoon to a new level of relaxed, coastal living.”
Lagoon will replace eight separate 1960s-era two-storey, low-rise buildings on a 4000sq m site on Cronin Ave’s northern side.
Drew Group bought the land for $20.5m. Taking more than two years to pull together, the deal is believed to be the biggest site amalgamation in Main Beach since the heady days of the 1980s.
The 23-storey first tower will feature 123 units, nine sub-penthouses, three penthouses and two garden terraces.
The 31-storey second tower will have 111 apartments. Both will be connected by a podium and lagoon-style pool.
City planning boss Cr Cameron Caldwell said: “Council has approved this project and it is pleasing to see high-quality developments being built in our suburbs.
“This project is of a high quality and will continue the revitalisation of our beachside suburbs.”
Main Beach Association president Sue Donovan said the project had greater site setbacks than other controversial projects planned for the area.
“We encourage developers to amalgamate sites so there is reasonable landscaping and not destroying the amenity of adjacent buildings,” she said.
Lagoon will be launched to the market in early 2022.
It is one of a wave of new developments proposed for Main Beach and northern Surfers Paradise in the past two years, several of which are under construction.
The Drew Group, founded in the early 1980s, has built several towers across the Gold Coast, including The Beach Houses, at Kirra Point and Village, a 75-unit tower and beach house project in Palm Beach.
Lagoon will be its second Main Beach project, following the recently completed 17-level, 28-unit Cerulean development on Pacific Street.
GOAL! UK powerhouse planning Coast return
CITY leaders are confident UK football powerhouse West Ham United F.C will make its Gold Coast debut in 2022, after Covid red-carded its previous tour.
Talks are well advanced in luring the club for its long-delayed match-up with A-League side Brisbane Roar, with the only sticking point believed to be a game date.
Mayor Tom Tate hoped the Cbus Stadium match would be played mid-year, between Premier League seasons and well before the FIFA World Cup in November.
Plans for Westham to visit the Gold Coast in June 2020 were canned when Covid struck. It was pitched as one of the largest games to be held in the city.
“The good news is that the contract with West Ham was not suspended when the game was postponed,” Mr Tate said.
“I’ve been watching them lately and they are No. 5 in the Premier League right now, whereas when we secured the game, they were near the bottom of the table.
“We will relaunch the game next year but it is just a matter of when.”
State Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe told the Bulletin on Tuesday that talks were ongoing.
“The Palaszczuk Government remains in discussions about the possibility of hosting games between EPL teams in Queensland in 2022.”
The Gold Coast has previously hosted one Premier League team. In July 2015, – Manchester City FC played sister club Melbourne City FC at Robina.
As part of the original plan, the EVA Air Queensland Champions Cup was to feature matches between Crystal Palace FC, West Ham United FC and Brisbane Roar at different venues across the state.
Each club was to play two games. The side with the points from those games would claim the inaugural title.
The grand finale was to be a game between the two Premier League teams at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.
At the time, the tour was projected to inject more than $5.9m into the state economy.
George Clooney dines out at Coast-founded eatery
HOLLYWOOD heart-throb George Clooney has been spotting dining out at one of the Gold Coast’s best-known Italian restaurants.
The Ocean’s 11 star, who is on the Coast filming Ticket to Paradise with Julia Roberts, was spotted eating at the Brisbane outlet of Broadbeach-based eatery Gemelli with his wife Amal.
Gemelli co-owner James Carney took a video of the couple leaving his restaurant which was posted to Instagram on Saturday night.
CLOONEY AND ROBERTS FILM AT GOLD COAST BEACH
Oh George.
Hollywood ‘silver fox’ George Clooney was busy filming his new movie along with co-star Julia Roberts in Miami on Thursday morning.
The production was set up in front of the Ocean Beach Tourist Park, where fans and onlookers tried to score a sighting of the movie star pair.
A self-described “Clooney-obsessed” fan said she had “waited all morning” to take a glimpse of the A-lister on set and had “just missed him” as he wrapped up filming for the day.
Security staff onsite described Mr Clooney’s facial complexion as “incredibly smooth” and that he was “an impressive sight to look at.”
Both Clooney and Roberts are spending time in the sunshine state as they film their latest movie, Ticket to Paradise.
Production is shooting on location on the Gold Coast, Hamilton Island and Brisbane.
Roberts was recently snapped cuddling up to one of the film’s producers, Tim Bevan, 63, during a sunrise stroll on a Gold Coast beach.
Roberts and Clooney began filming the rom-com last month.
Ticket to Paradise stars the Hollywood heavyweights as a divorced couple who rush to Bali to stop their adult daughter from getting married.
The production is expected to tip $47m in the local economy along with other Gold Coast productions including NBC’s Young Rock program with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Disney’s Nautilus project and Irreverent, a Netflix crime series.
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Originally published as Gold Coast development: Main Beach’s Lagoon tower approved by council
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