Council has signed off on a new 45-storey tower for Scarborough St in Southport.  The new building, Iridium, will be built by Ingles Group and will include over 330 apartments, as well as commercial, retail and cafe space.  The building will be built near the future light rail station, and next door to the existing Little Theatre.  As part of the renewal, the developer will assist with redevelopment of the theatre’s green room and box office.

Rayjon Properties, the owner of the Treetops shopping centre on the corner of Bermuda St & Reedy Creek Rd has lodged plans for the first stage of it’s Urbia development.  The Urbia Burleigh development, to take place on the Treetops plans to include close to 10,000sqm of shopping centre floorspace, 8,700sqm of offices and several hundred apartments.  The plans include buildings up to 20 storeys in height, as well as a cafe and restaurant strip.

Stage 1 will incorporate 70 apartments, nearly 3500sqm of office space and an expansion of the existing Coles shopping centre.  Approval is expected next year, however construction isn’t slated to begin until 2012 at the earliest.

APG have begun marketing their new development to be built on the old Volare restaurant site on the Gold Coast Highway in northern Broadbeach.  Details are still incomplete, but the project is expected to comprise 1+ study and 2 bedroom apartments with pricing indications from $439,000.

Following the successfull sell-out of The Parc at Tugun, and with only a few townhouses remaining for sale at the (still uncompleted) Cassia development in Merrimac, Sunland are preparing to launch their next townhouse project, in The Glades precinct in Robina.  The move underscores the resilience of the middle property market, and highlights the local developer’s shift from highrise back to housing developments.

At the recent UDIA Awards For Excellence, local development Allisee has taken away the gong for QLD’s best multi-level development.  Stockland’s $259m project on the waterfront at Hollywell features a private marina and resort facilities and just under 200 2 & 3 bedroom apartments and penthouses.

It has long been agreed that a new bridge between Hope Island and Paradise Point will be required to keep track with population growth, and to provide additional work to the local construction area.  After past postponements, Mayor Ron Clark has requested that the Gold Coast City Council CEO “bring back a report as soon as possible outlining design, tendering and construction for the initial two lanes for the [proposed 4-lane] bridge, including detailed options for its finance.”

The report is due in early November, and is likely to look at commencing works in the near future, as part of the Council’s economic stimulus package.

While numbers have fallen since the days of the Gold Coast Indy, this years Gold Coast 600 still managed to draw large crowds and provide a big boost to the local economy.  Trackside accommodation was filled, and in general occupancy rates across Main Beach, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach saw a big increase for the three-day motorsport event.  There was concern that the new V8-based format would fail to attract public interest, but on the whole, the event exceeded many predictions and expectations.

The number of high rise apartments on the market has fallen from 1296 to 839 over the last 12 months, according to the latest Midwood Queensland Investment Report.  This is the lowest the figure has been since around 2004.  The fall is largely attributed to a reduction in the number of apartments being built on the Gold Coast – with development approvals having fallen consistently in recent years and the market remaining relatively flat.

Potter Group’s proposed 52-storey apartment building is receiving some opposition from the traders in the area surrounding Main Place where it is slated to be built.  Positioned opposite the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, as well as a future Rapid Transit stop, the developer sees the central Broadbeach transport hub as an obvious choice for increasing height and density, however at 52 storeys, the tower would be the tallest in Broadbeach, eclipsing The Oracle’s Beach Tower at 50 storeys and exceeds Local Area Plan requirements.

A period of consultation with the public and Council will take place, which could lead to a reduction in the height and density of the development.

Ridong Gold Coast Developments, the comapny behind Pacific Beach – a $1bn luxury high rise development to be built on the Surfers Paradise beachfront – has brought in three overseas architects to assist with the building’s design.

The firms, Oppenheim Architecture and Design, Marks Barfield Architects and Llewelyn Davies Yeang from the US, UK & Malaysia respectively, are refining the DBI Design concept plans for the project.  Construction itself remains some way off however, with the developer in the process of refurbishing several of the buildings on the site with a view to renting them out in the short term, while plans are prepared and lodged with Council.