The project will include 91 apartments and a three-level underground carpark, with 124 parking spaces.

There will also be a public space and a recreational area.

Final application is with council and once approved construction is expected to begin as soon as possible.

The development will include a gym, theatre and barbecue area.

The three-bedroom penthouse will have exclusive access to a rooftop terrace and will feature a spa and plunge pool.

The Gold Coast’s southern beaches continue to attract luxury apartment buyers, with $3.245 million worth of property settling at one of the area’s premier developments, Kirra Surf, in the past month.

Buyers from across Australia have snapped up apartments during the latest sales run at the $95 million project, situated at Kirra Beach, bringing total sales to date to more than $70 million.

The settlements bring Kirra Surf’s sales tally to 77 of 91 units.

The sales come just weeks before the auction of the project’s luxury 11th floor penthouse.

The 254sq m penthouse features unobstructed 270-degree ocean views, three bedrooms, three side-by-side car parks and a rooftop spa and barbecue. It will go under the hammer on site on Wednesday .

During the latest sales run at Kirra Surf, a $1.7 million three-bedroom-plus-study apartment, $780,000 two-bedroom apartment and $765,000 two-bedroom apartment have sold.

The sales were to buyers from right around Australia, including Mount Tom Price in Western Australia, Bellevue Hill in NSW and Geelong in Victoria.

“Since the beginning of the year, this has been the trend for luxury apartments. “Interstate buyers are seeing the value offered by Gold Coast property, particularly apartments with beach or water views.

“The latest buyers have purchased in Kirra Surf as a lifestyle investment and intend to use it as a holiday home, which is indicative of the types of purchasers that have been attracted to the project.

“We are seeing the majority of interest from owner-occupiers or those who plan on living in, or holidaying, in the apartment for part of the year.”

Buyers recognise the opportunity to secure apartments in beachfront buildings such as Kirra Surf are dwindling.

There are few sites remaining and no new developments being launched at the moment, so buyers are seeing the value in purchasing now in prime locations such as this.

Structurally, the concrete pour is up to Level 10. Unit finishes are now being installed to Level 2 and Level 3. Retail and residential public space facilities are well underway to Level 1 and the Level 2 Podium. Basement parking facilities and ramps are almost complete.

The current program has the structure topping out late January early February 2009. We are currently on target for a planned project completion late Spring 2009.

We look forward to keeping you updated. Should you require any further information, please contact Anja Cass who will be happy to assist.

Telephone: 07 5538 1646

Email: sales@offtheplangoldcoast.com.au

AS Indy kicks into gear, the Howard Group has unveiled its long-awaited plans for a $170 million `floating’ high rise to be built alongside the Surfers Paradise circuit.

The Howard Group, led by V8 enthusiast and Indy fan Mark Howard, has revealed plans for the unnamed 40-storey tower on a site in northern Surfers Paradise.

The Gold Coast based developer, who founded the Howard Racing Team, has received council approval to construct the tower on the 2382sqm triangular site bounded by Surfers Paradise Boulevard, Main Beach Parade and Higman Street.

The Howard Group bought the site more than 10 years ago from low-key developer Hiro Pamamull Administrators for $3.8 million.

The holding is next to 158 The Esplanade, another site owned by the developer.

It is the second high rise in Surfers Paradise for the Howard Group it built the Pinnacle on the riverfront south of central Surfers and is one of the few developments announced for the northern end of the glitter strip in recent months.

Plans by Raptis Group and CP1 to redevelop the Gold Coast International Hotel and an adjacent block of land have been quashed after the two companies decided to sell in a move to shave debt.

Howard’s Cox Rayner-designed tower will comprise 70 two-per-floor apartments with beach views; a further six podium-level apartments; three commercial tenancies at ground level; 13 offices and recreational facilities including a heated pool, spa, sauna, gym and residents’ lounge.

Earthworks are due to begin early next year, with construction starting in June, 2009.

Mr Howard said the tower was designed to maximise its prime location and become a landmark Gold Coast development.

As well as being on the Indy cicuit, the site is opposite the proposed light-rail track.

“Some of the world’s most iconic buildings, such as Times Square in New York, sit on triangular sites,” said Mr Howard.

“The shape of the site, combined with its gateway to Surfers Paradise location, encouraged us to commission a spectacular building design.

“As a result of some impressive engineering the tower will float above the podium at level three.”

Mr Howard said the tower would sit above the three-level commercial precint, balanced on a centre plinth.

This would give the floating effect, he said.

Mr Howard said another key point of difference would be the office space, to be used exclusively by residents.

“We believe that home should be home and the office the office,” said Mr Howard.

“We will be offering a happy medium where home and the office can be in the same location but not in the same space, only a lift ride away.”

He said his concept was supported by Gold Coast City Council.

“Council supports the home office space offering because it delivers both economic and environmental benefits,” he said.

“Since the residents won’t have to drive to work, it will not add to the area’s traffic.”

Mr Howard said as part of the building’s green commercial concept would include rainwater-collection devices, energy-efficient design and basement security storage.

“The apartments also have close proximity to a patrolled beach; excellent security; spacious floor plans designed for practical living; two side-by-side car parks per unit; high quality finishes and fittings and great amenity,” he said.

“The development has been designed with comfortable emptynesters in mind.”

Howard Group is also developing the environmentally friendly $170 million Sphere, a planned community near Griffith University.

SUNLAND Group has flaunted its financial strength yesterday emerging as the $28 million buyer of the residential and marina precinct at Royal Pines Resort.

It is the Q1 developer’s first Gold Coast property deal since last November and it has indicated further acquisitions are on the horizon.

The purchase comes as fellow Gold Coast developer Jim Raptis shrugs off allegations he could not afford to renew his building licence.

The Chevron Renaissance developer said the group no longer needed the Building Services Authority licence, indicating ‘other parties’ would take over construction of the Hilton Hotel as it concentrates on paying back an immediate debt of $300 million.

Last week, The Bulletin revealed Mr Raptis, who has four companies in receivership, was in talks with construction giant Brookfield Multiplex to take over the proposed Surfers Paradise development.

It is understood a deal is close to being finalised.

While the global credit crunch has seen many developers tighten belts, sell assets and move to pay back bad debt, Sunland said it was well-placed to take advantage of major sales.

The group bought the 19ha lot at Ashmore, adjacent to the RACV-owned resort tower, from US funds manager Morgan Stanley.

It plans to transform the waterfront site into a medium-density community with an end value of $200 million.

The group, which also developed Circle on Cavill, said the buy represented the start of its ‘counter-cyclical investment strategy’.

It said its strong balance sheet enabled the group ‘to acquire premium assets that would strengthen the pipeline and profitability in the future’.

Sunland managing director Sahba Abedian said the group’s financial discipline and the disposal of non-core assets over recent years had placed the company in a position where it could react quickly to opportunities.

“The acquisition of Royal Pines is a prime example of such opportunities,” he said.

“We will purchase the site with surplus cash and continue to have significant capacity to benefit from other acquisition opportunities the market may offer.

“Despite the volatility in the global markets, there are still specific property segments which will perform soundly in the medium term.”

He said the group was ‘assessing’ a number of other potential property deals.

“We are being approached almost on a weekly basis with opportunities and over the next 12 months we will be looking to make further acquisitions,” he said.

It is the group’s first foray in the Gold Coast property market this year.

Before that, its most recent buy was a development site at Merrimac for $5 million.

Mark Witheriff, of CB Richard Ellis, said Sunland’s decision to buy the Royal Pines development was, in this market, a ‘massive statement’.

“This is huge in this current climate,” said Mr Witheriff, who sold the property.

Mr Abedian said the group, which also has strong development interests in Dubai, had been eyeing off the site ‘for some time’.

He said the group’s plans for the site, not yet finalised, would be a mix of commercial retail and residential.

The site is 5km from Surfers Paradise and the marina includes 87 wet berths and 65 dry docks.

“Our acquisition enables us to reap the benefit of more than 20 years’ investment in the existing resort and brand, infrastructure, planning and amenities by the original developer,” he said.

The deal also includes the real estate business, Royal Pines Resort Realty.

The site was placed on the market at the same time as the hotel, which was picked up by RACV two months ago for about $60 million.

Mr Witheriff said Morgan Stanley decided to split the Royal Pines offering in order to achieve a higher price.

The US investment giant bought Royal Pines for $44.3 million in 2005 and undertook a $16.9 million refurbishment in 2006.

THEY’RE from Russia and they’re packing much more than love.

Russian investors have embarked on a love affair with the Gold Coast and it looks like being a long-term relationship.

An international marketing group called Kontinent, which was launched on the Gold Coast last month, was set up specifically to market valuable prestige waterfront property to Russian-speaking investors.

The company is involved in an exclusive agreement with the Mirvac and Lewis Land Group of Companies to market the exclusive $400 million Ephraim Island development.

They are also selling property in the prestige enclaves of Hope Island Resort, The Sovereign Islands and Harbour Town.

Kontinent director Joseph Golubinsky said Russian speaking investors throughout the Russian Federation and Eastern Europe had shown enormous interest in the Coast’s prestige property market.

“They see buying property in Australia as better than money in the bank,” said Mr Golubinsky.

“For them the Gold Coast is seen as a safe haven, now safer than the money they had in their pension funds back at home.”

He said many Russians saw investing in Gold Coast prestige property as their own retirement fund.

“For many the property is there just as an investment for a rainy day and not to live in,” he said. “The property just sits there increasing in value or they may use it just as a holiday home.

“One gentleman bought five blocks of land at Hope Island. Some of them will buy property here and the mother will live here while the children study at private schools like The Southport School or AB Paterson College.

“Other older students will live here by themselves while they study at places like Bond University.”

Mr Golubinsky said the Russians were most attracted to the climate and lifestyle that went with an upmarket waterfront property on the Gold Coast.

“Here some have 180 degree ocean views and a boat parked outside. At home it would be a small apartment with a garbage truck outside and another apartment across the road,” he said.

“In Moscow, there are 22 million people, more than in the whole of Australia — and it’s a concrete jungle.

“On the Gold Coast there are no revolutions, no typhoons, it is secure and stable and Australia this year was voted the second best country in the world behind Canada in which to buy property because it is so straightforward.”

There are plenty of cashed up Russians willing to spread their capital around.

Recent research by Colliers International found that Russian investors were now the third biggest foreign investors in Australia behind Korea and New Zealand.

The Foreign Ownership Land Register showed they have now invested $35.2 million in the Gold Coast.

Kontinent is attracting plenty of elite buyers through its Russian language website which has generated a lot of traffic — 2000 hits since its launch last month.

“We had 2000 hits on the website in the first month and in the first two weeks of October we had interest from 25 countries throughout the Russian Federation and Eastern Europe,” he said.

Mr Golubinsky said in many cases, well-heeled Russians were happy to buy prestige property through the website, sight unseen, without setting foot on the Gold Coast.

“One lady from Moscow is looking to buy a $1.9 million villa on Ephraim Island and after some discussions she said she didn’t want to have to travel all the way here. We told her it could all be arranged through our lawyers here,” he said.

“Many of these people are very wealthy buyers with plenty of money to spend.”

THE Raptis Group yesterday confirmed it was negotiating with Brookfield Multiplex over a possible tie-up on its Hilton Surfers Paradise project.

In a brief statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, the listed Gold Coast developer said discussions with Brookfield Multiplex were ‘ongoing’ and ‘no agreement has been concluded’.

The ASX statement came in res-ponse to a report yesterday in The Gold Coast Bulletin which exclusively revealed Multiplex to be a possible buyer or joint-venture partner for the $700 million Hilton project, which is being undertaken on the site of the former Dolphin Arcade.

Neither Raptis Group nor Brookfield Multiplex would comment on the negotiations, but sources said they were close to finalisation.

“We confirm that we will inform the market once there is a binding agreement,” said Raptis Group.

Brookfield Multiplex is controlled by Canadian investment powerhouse Brookfield Asset Management, which last year privatised listed builder Multiplex in a $4.2 billion takeover.

Raptis has been seeking a joint-venture partner for the Hilton Surfers Paradise project after putting all its Gold Coast assets on the market in a bid to reduce its $750 million debt.

Sources said Brookfield Multiplex was a potential outright purchaser of the Hilton, but the Raptis announcement yesterday said Multiplex intended to take ‘a role in the project’.

RAPTIS Group appears to be close to hitching up its first major financial lifeline, with a deal said to be imminent on the sale of its Hilton Surfers Paradise project.

Market speculation has centred on construction giant Brookfield Multiplex as a likely buyer of the $700 million project, work on which has slowed in the wake of Raptis Group’s emergency debt-reduction program.

Multiplex, the former listed builder of the troubled Wembley Stadium in the UK, is now controlled by Canadian investment powerhouse Brookfield Asset Management and is understood to be seeking value from major development opportunities amid the current economic crisis.

Brookfield Multiplex would neither confirm nor deny yesterday that a deal was in the pipeline, while Raptis Group chairman Jim Raptis did not return calls.

But market sources have confirmed an agreement is close to being finalised.

Last month, Mr Raptis said he was searching for an equity partner to continue with the Hilton development, which is taking shape on the former Dolphin Arcade.

The move was part of a massive asset sales campaign to reduce Raptis Group’s $750 million debt, forced after receivers took control of the third tower of Southport Central on September 10.

While the receivers are now completing Southport Central, Raptis Group has been scouring the market for buyers of its prime Gold Coast assets, including the Sheraton Mirage, the Iluka apartment tower and about 40 apartments in The Sands tower on the Esplanade at Surfers Paradise.

The sales campaign for the Sheraton is close to being wrapped up and, although it has attracted offers from offshore and domestic parties through an expressions of interest campaign, some analysts are predicting the property will fetch less than the $100 million originally expected.

Expressions of interest for the Sheraton Mirage close today.

Marketing agent Dan McVay yesterday said the property had generated ‘a lot of interest’, but he declined to comment further.

Sources say the property could achieve a price of up to $90 million.

Ironically, deteriorating market conditions are said to be the reason behind Brookfield Multiplex taking an interest in the Hilton Surfers Paradise.

Brookfield Multiplex is understood to have been searching the property market for new projects.

Last month, it was forced to close subscriptions to its $165 million Multiplex Development and Opportunity Fund, citing its new focus on large-scale projects in the wake of dwindling opportunities at the bottom end of the market.

The Hilton, with its strong brand and solid uptake from foreign investors, is seen as fitting in with that strategy.

Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management, an investment company that specialises in property, power and infrastructure assets, acquired Multiplex last year in a $4.2 billion privatisation deal.

Brookfield Asset Management controls about $100 billion in assets.

However, the global funding crisis raised doubts this week over Brookfield Multiplex’s $1 billion City Square office tower planned for Perth, despite BHP committing to 80 per cent of the space in the project.

Brookfield Multiplex has denied the tower was in doubt.

Despite market turbulence, Brookfield Asset Management delivered a solid profit of $US307 million ($458 million) for the six months to the end of June, down from $US348 million a year earlier.

IF there’s one topic Queensland developers might be expected to know a thing or two about, it’s building Gold Coast apartments.

But as some of the old local names fall victim to tough times, one Canberra-based company is showing the glitter strip how it’s done, though in much smaller bites than previously.

Amalgamated Property Group has completed a $900 million string of projects in south-east Queensland in the past four years — including Brisbane’s tallest residential tower — and has a current $1.15 billion workbook in the state.

APG has grown to a similar size as the better-known Sunland Group, but as a private firm it has largely flown under the radar.

In addition to APG’s residential work, the company has completed a number of office buildings — and unlike most developers, it holds all the commercial buildings it develops as long-term investments.

Joint managing director Barry Morris says APG’s investment portfolio currently includes more than 180,000sqm of offices, in Canberra and Brisbane, worth about $700 million.

He says the company used debt for its developments, but was not affected by the credit crisis as its funding was in place for the next five years.

“Having a balance between development and investment gives us cash flows that are not dependent on the development side of the business,” Morris says.

The company has its own in-house construction arm that works only on APG projects.

Morris, a former accountant, and partner Graham Potts, a former real estate agent, formed APG in 2002, although the two had worked together on various developments in Canberra since 1994.

The company made a strategic decision to expand beyond Canberra and considered Sydney and Melbourne but decided south-east Queensland offered more opportunity.

APG moved into Brisbane in 2005, buying the $200 million Aurora Tower project from builder Bovis Lend Lease.

It then bought Brisbane’s 30-year-old Suncorp Plaza office building, which it refurbished and re-let, and has almost completed building a 26-level, 25,000sqm tower next door. Both projects will stay long-term in APG’s investment portfolio.

Simultaneously, APG turned to the Gold Coast, where its debut project was the $85 million Verve at Broadbeach. The project was designed for residents only and sold out in less than six months.

The company then moved on to develop the $200 million Sierra Grand resort and the $120 million Eclipse projects at Broadbeach, as well as the $90 million Element and the $32 million Ivory, both at Burleigh Heads.

The strategy of targeting owner-occupiers hit the mark with buyers, but Morris says conditions have deteriorated in recent times.

“The Gold Coast is struggling,” he says. “The enquiry rate is good but the conversion (sales) rate is slow.”

Nonetheless, APG recently launched the 31-unit Eclipse at Broadbeach.

Its apartments range in price between $2.4 million and $5.7 million, and have 30m frontages — wider than some beachfront house blocks.

APG had planned for a twin-tower mixed hotel and residential development next to the Gold Coast Convention Centre, on the former Volare restaurant site, which it recently bought for more than $20 million, but Morris says that project had been shelved until conditions improve.

In Canberra, APG this week sold out its $50 million Oracle project. Apartments were priced between $299,000 and $585,000 and aimed at investors.