SIXTEEN property owners at the humming suburb that is Palm Beach could well have sweaty palms as they sit by the beach and await the outcome of one of the more adventurous site amalgamations of the year.
The reason — if a buyer comes along for what is a major beachfront site, the average value of each of their holdings will approach $1 million.
One of the so-called sellers owns a unit bought for a mere $53,300 way back in 1981.
The most any of the other owners has paid is $980,000 two years ago and that was for a highway-front house at the ‘back’ of the amalgamated site.
The undisclosed fellow who’s put the holding together has it on the market at $15.6 million but obviously he won’t be paying that much to the 16 owners if he does find a buyer.
He’ll get his own ‘earn’ and also will be paying sales commissions to a couple of CBRE agents, Lachlan Harris and Mason Kidman, who have enjoyed a rather lucrative run on the Palm Beach beachfront in 2017 thanks to an aged-care provider.
The new amalgamation exercise is the latest example of the rollicking surge in popularity that Palm Beach has enjoyed in the past couple of years, both with owner-occupiers and developers.
The biggest ‘play’ under way is by the Sunland Group, with its Magnoli project on the former Palm Beach caravan park, a project that is to include two 12-level apartment towers.
Earlier this year Regis, an old hand in the aged-care game, spent more than $15.6 million assembling a 3304 sqm beachfront site, buying the bulk of it from former motorcycle champion Mick Doohan.
Last month Don O’Rorke’s Consolidated Properties and a partner agreed to pay $16.25 million to buy the balance of the highway-front Pavilions residential-retail project.
Another high-spec boutique building also has sprung up by the ocean, with former ABC Learning boss Eddy Groves reportedly in the development background.
The holding that’s on the market at $15.6 million has three street frontages — to The Esplanade, the highway, and Twenty Fifth Ave.
The 2458 sqm site is home to the Cannindah, Wistari Reef, Davidson Place and Glenarrow unit buildings, along with a house.
Its mixed-use zoning allows a building of up to 29 metres high, which would take it above a boutique beachfront tower completed in 2015 two doors to the north.
That building is called La Vie, or The Life, and was undertaken by property veteran Bill McHarg, one of the founders in the 70s of Colliers International.
A bundle of new owners could be enjoying the good life by the beach too within a couple of years if the amalgamated site sells and is developed.
Sunland’s Magnoli Residences at Palm Beach. A PROPERTY deal that would be the third biggest the Gold Coast has seen is believed to be bubbling away in the background.
The deal, unrelated to the hospitality industry, would slot in behind the 1988 sale of Sanctuary Cove for $341 million and the 2002 deal on the resort at $208 million.
Those behind the negotiations are playing their cards close to their chest but are believed to have multiple runners on the mystery offering.
The looming sale is unrelated to the hospitality industry. JOHN Calleija, international jeweller, and wife Noni obviously view Ephraim Island in the Broadwater as a rare gem — Calleija cash spent there has just topped $8.5 million.
The buying, in Noni’s name, started last year when three waterfront lots were bought from Riyu Li’s Ridong group for $5.35 million, deals which came after the Calleija family home at Sanctuary Cove sold for $10.9 million.
A freestanding home a stroll away on the waterfront has just been added to the Calleija ‘collection’ for $3.165 million.
Jeweller John Calleija. PERTH group Delstrat, hoping to get $6.5 million for a Southport tower site, appears to have fallen well short.
There’s a contract on the Queens St site that’s apparently closer to $4 million, or around $65,000 land content for each of the 67 units in a 14-level Burling Brown-designed tower approved for the property.
Delstrat’s unlikely to be grimacing too badly over the price — the two-title 1593 sqm site was bought for a total of $1.35 million 14 years ago.
Originally Published: www.myaccount.news.com.au