June 17th, 2009

Private developers have proposed a $63 million sports and entertainment centre directly opposite Carrara Stadium.

Brisbane-based Bramley Properties has proposed a complex of almost 35,000sqm on a 21ha site which will comprise a Southport Sharks-style sports club, shops, restaurants, offices and a Ferry Road-style boutique food and produce market.

The proposal designed by the same architects who did the Southpork Sharks club complex will be lodged with the Gold Coast City Council today, and if approved could be built by 2011.

While the obvious contender as an anchor tenant is the new GC17 AFL club, planner Michael Nash said the developers were talking to several possible sports bodies.

The project yesterday received the stamp of approval from Mayor Ron Clarke, who believed it could also add support to the Coast’s 2018 Commonwealth Games bid.

“This is exciting news for the Gold Coast and illustrates perfectly the importance to a City such as ours, of an AFL licence,” said Cr Clarke.

“Not only has the granting of this (AFL) license resulted in the $135million investment in a new stadium at Carrara by all levels of government federal, state and local it has, as a flow-on effect, provided the impetus for a government-backed bid for the 2018 Commonwealth Games (which could generate even more infrastructure for the City).

Mr Nash said the proposed centre would give a `heart, a core and a seven-day-a-week operation’, to the Carrara sports precinct.