Gold Coast development: Push to dump existing Southport development scheme
Gold Coast councillors want to scrap a scheme created to make development in Southport easier - because the raft of towers and tens of thousands of jobs it promised failed to eventuate.
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A Gold Coast City councillor and business leaders have called for a review of a major plan designed to fast-track mega development in the city’s CBD.
They say Southport’s Priority Development Area (PDA) status has turned the place into a “bomb site” — littered with closed or for-lease shops — as the rest of the Gold Coast strains under a population boom.
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Developers gaining approvals for their projects and land banking, rather than building, is a contributing factor, they say.
Area councillor Brooke Patterson previously described the PDA as a “flop” while other councillors insist it has rendered Southport “a joke”.
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Cr Patterson said the time was right to take a “fresh look” at the scheme, first introduced in late 2013.
“We need to recreate what the CBD is going to be and we need to start with the planning tools,” she said.
“We need to do more than just revive the CBD because that suggests going back to the way it was historically. I think there is real opportunity to create the future of a CBD of a city which a lot of people want to move to over the next 10 to 20 years.”
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The review is expected to come back to council by July. However, any potential changes would need to be approved by the State Government, meaning a revised PDA would be unlikely to come into effect until 2022.
Debate over Southport comes as the city’s infrastructure struggles under enormous growth. Supporters of a revamped CBD say rebooting the area would also help other suburbs under the strain of overdevelopment, or the target of a rejigged City Plan.
In late 2013, the then-Newman Government named Southport as a PDA in the hopes of kickstarting billions of dollars in major projects and jobs.
“The creation of a PDA will not only cut red tape and streamline development decisions, it will create capacity for jobs and developer confidence for the area,’’ Mayor Tom Tate said at the time.
Within a year of its introduction council had received 29 development applications, worth at least $1.96 billion, but much of it was for commercial space.
Some projects, including Meriton’s Sundale tower and the $500 million Queen Street Village development, have moved ahead. However, several high-profile projects worth billions of dollars have failed to proceed.
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The withdrawal of the China market, bank lending practices and land banking have all been blamed.
Southport Chamber of Commerce president Ian Kennedy said the PDA had failed to live up to its promise.
“I was a big supporter of it originally but it feels developers have bought up the land and held on to it so they have future opportunities rather than have any incentive to develop immediately,” he said.
“Whatever the solution is, they need to leave some planning incentives in place for Southport because it is important that the Gold Coast’s CBD has its own identity.”
Urbis director Matthew Schneider said a rethink was overdue.
“A great opportunity exists right now to refine the focus of the Southport CBD on boutique-scale, medium-rise development, supported by a range of retail, commercial, entertainment, education and civic activities and open space that capture the unique characteristics of Southport.”
“The single most important step that could be taken to support the intent of the PDA, and new private sector investment, would be for council to move its operations to a new civic precinct in the Southport CBD.”
FIVE SOUTHPORT PDA PROJECTS THAT NEVER EVENTUATED
THE AU (ASF)
A giant gold complex planned for Southport. Featured 66-level and 15-level towers. Project approved by the council in 2016 but work has not begun in the five years since. ASF still owns the site.
GRAND CENTRAL (SOUTHPORT CENTRAL)
A 49-storey hotel and apartment tower planned for the corner of Scarborough and Hicks streets by Southport Central, a company controlled by Newcastle lawyer Wayne Roddenby.
Despite notching up more than $80 million in sales across an 18-month period, it missed its announced construction date and ultimately folded in 2017.
The crackdown on Chinese overseas funding was blamed for the project losing its capital.
CIENNA (CIENNA GROUP)
A twin tower which, had it been built, would have become the tallest tower on the Gold Coast.
First proposed in 2015, Cienna was to feature two towers, the largest of which was expected to top 88 storeys. The other would be 38 levels.
The development had been earmarked for a 4300sq m site between Young, Nerang and Garden streets and include a mix of retail and commercial spaces to podium level, with the towers to contain residential accommodation.
STAR OF THE SEA (GARUDA)
Resort and lifestyle precinct proposed in 2015 by Huixin Real Estate Group, through its Australian arm, Garuda GC.
The developer paid the benevolent Catholic order the Sisters of Mercy $27m for the land and demolished the former school in 2016.
OXFORD ON QUEEN STREET (PSR SOUTHPORT MP INVESTMENT PTY LTD)
A project proposed in late 2015 for the corner of Scarborough and Queen streets which was to feature twin towers of up to 45 storeys.
It was set to have 240 units and at least two levels of commercial space and a childcare centre. Approved by council in 2016, the project remains unrealised five years later.
Originally published as Gold Coast development: Push to dump existing Southport development scheme
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