18 May 2023
Words John Miller Informer 106

Main Beach Makeover

Tedder Avenue was the place to be in the ‘80s, ‘90s and early ‘00s. In its heyday, Main Beach’s most famous street was a haut monde haunt, so much so that it earned the suburb the nickname “Vain Beach.” But the Global Financial Crisis ended the party. For Lease signs replaced A-listers as Tedder Avenue fell into disrepair for over a decade. 

Now, Main Beach is set to shine again. A trio of super projects is set to reenergise the suburb, the first new developments in the area since Palazzo Versace opened in 2002. Melbourne-based Pelligra Group and Giannarelli Group’s $480 m Mariners Cove will house a new Ritz-Carlton, the luxury hotel chain’s third in Australia after Perth and Melbourne. Then there’s Gordon Corp’s $100 m Mantaray Marina & Residences, which will comprise 24 lavish waterfront residences and a marina able to berth almost 70 superyachts. And Makris Group has just lodged plans to redevelop ‘80s showcase Mirage Marina to the tune of $500 m.

Joining Main Beach’s rejuvenation is Jonathan Drew of Drew Group. The property developer started construction in January of its luxury $395 m Lagoon project on Cronin Avenue, a cross street of Tedder Avenue. Slated for completion in Q3 2025, the prestige complex will comprise twin towers of 143 and 116 apartments. Connecting the towers will be a large lagoon-style pool (hence the complex’s name) with cabanas, a heated spa, gymnasium and yoga deck. Lounges with work-from-home facilities will accommodate new remote working arrangements that businesses have grown accustomed to since Covid. Hutchinson, Australia’s largest construction company, has been appointed to build it.

“Now these three major projects have been announced, together with my project and some other projects that are already under construction, it will put Main Beach front and centre again as one of the most prestigious suburbs on the coast,” says Drew.

“Hot pockets like Burleigh and Palm Beach had a really great run over the last five to ten years and have drawn some attention away from the northern part of the coast. With these three major projects all next door to each other, it will be a magic period for Main Beach in the lead up to the 2032 Olympics.

“Between these projects you’re going to have a very high-end residential and retail precinct, all within short walking distance of where Lagoon is. It’s going to bring a number of top retail operators and restaurants into the precinct that will grow the whole area. It will also make existing retail step their game up too. If they’re going to survive the influx of new operators it will force them to renovate, refurbish, and generally raise their standards.”

Drew Group’s development expertise now spans three decades. The family-owned and operated business developed its first project in 1982 and now has an impressive list of highly successful apartment residences and hotels across Brisbane and theGold Coast. The group’s Brisbane portfolio includes Riverstone (Newstead), Elevate (Windsor), Lewin (Woolloongabba), Annexe (Bowen Hills) and three Fortitude Valley properties, Precinct, Atrio and The Constance hotel. On the Gold Coast, the group developed Village in Palm Beach, The Beach Houses in Kirra, Cerulean in Main Beach and Lexington in Nerang.

As for Lagoon, the developer has adopted many of the winning features that proved popular with owners in Village, Drew Group’s most recent project at Palm Beach, which was completed last year. This included generously sized apartments and double-car parking bays.

“Generally speaking, most existing Main Beach apartments were built in the late ‘80s and ‘90s,” says Drew. “The size of the apartments then were a lot larger than what are now being produced on the coast. So, we wanted to make sure we had a scalable size in the individual apartments.

“There was also an overwhelming demand that the people who would be buying these apartments need spaces for two cars. That’s why 88 per cent of Lagoon’s apartments have side-by-side carparks. I could have got a lot more apartments if I reduced carparks to one per apartment.”

Drew says he has been overwhelmed with how well Lagoon has been received since it launched off-the-plan sales last year. “We’ve already secured enough sales to commence construction with a fully funded project,” he says. “We’ve taken learnings from Village and studied other projects that have been successful in the market up and down the coast. We always strive to make sure the next project we do we learn from previous ones and make sure it’s better.”

The developer says Main Beach and Tedder Avenue are already on the upswing, and that the spate of new projects will supercharge the area even more.

“There was always the saying of the tumbleweeds rolling down Tedder Ave,” he says. “One of the biggest problems that Main Beach, especially Tedder Ave, has always struggled with is when it was in its absolute heyday in the late ‘80s and ‘90s it had high-end retail, and the real estate, especially the commercial and retail real estate, was snapped up by a lot of very wealthy out of- town investors.

“They bought up Tedder Ave and just kept on cranking the rents not understanding that business wasn’t as profitable as it once was. So, the high-end retailers started leaving the street. But if you go down Tedder Ave today, you’ll see no For Lease signs, every shop is full, and every restaurant and cafe is full. And that’s without any new retail out of any of these new developments.” END

Photo credit: Volume Vision