Property that included former Mermaid Beach Sizzler sells for massive sum

A Mermaid Beach property which was former home to a Sizzler restaurant has sold for a massive sum, with the new owner planning to redevelop the site. FULL DETAILS >>>

THE ‘sizzling’ property market has produced a bounty for the owner of a property that includes the Gold Coast’s first major cinema centre.

The highway-front Mermaid Beach property, until early this year long-term home to a Sizzler restaurant, has sold for $16 million.

Owner Greg Van Zeeland, a Brisbane investor, bought the property from receivers for $5.9 million in 2011.

The Mermaid Beach property which once included a Sizzler restaurant.

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Canford Estate Agents principal Roland Evans yesterday said the buyer was from south-east Queensland.

“Their longer-term goal is to redevelop the site.

“The fact that remaining tenants are on short-term leases gives them at least 12 months to decide on plans and to gain development approvals.”

Those tenants are KFC, a medical centre and a snooker hall, with an Optus mobile-phone mast also providing income.

The property, at 2506 Gold Coast Highway, spans 6525sqm and has frontages to Crescent Ave and Gaven Crescent.

The former Sizzler restaurant at Mermaid Beach.

Mr Evans said the value of the site had been brought into focus by plans for the Broadbeach-Burleigh Heads stage of the light-rail system.

“The Mermaid property, which has a long highway frontage, will have a train station out the front.”

Birch Carroll and Coyle owned the then 1.5ha holding, home to a five-screen cinema centre, from 1981.

The property was sold to investor Harry Pamamull for $4 million in 2001, with the cinema chain vacating it the following year.

It was on-sold to developer Larry Matthews for $6.8 million in 2005 and he developed a 70-unit project, Zone, on the western side of Gaven Crescent.

Receivers took control of the balance of the property when the Matthews business ran into turbulent waters during the GFC.