Gurner launches multi-billion-dollar wellness club, Saint Haven

Businessman Tim Gurner, founder and CEO of the $10 billion Gurner Group, has embarked on a mission to redefine the global health and wellness industry with a world-first, multi-million-dollar health, wellness, recovery and anti-ageing concept club, Saint Haven.

The developer turned wellness founder’s re-entry into the sector forms part of Gurner Group’s continued diversification across multiple verticals, with some 10 additional locations already earmarked for national expansion, which would see the value of the venture total more than $100 million within years, with global aspirations in the years ahead.

A world-first concept, Saint Haven has been imagined as a luxury “sanctuary of wellness” that, for the first time, brings together eight pillars of health and wellness – social connection, nutrition and supplementation, ultimate luxury, insights and tracking, ancient wisdom and modern science, recovery and anti ageing, movement and mindfulness and strength and conditioning, in one exclusive private club.

“Think of Saint Haven as a private wellness club where performance meets recovery, strength meets mindfulness, and modern science meets ancient wisdom, in a stunning design-led setting with world class service and care,” Gurner said.

Render of the meditation room penned for Saint Haven. Image supplied. 

The first club, set to open its doors early next year, is located in Collingwood and will include a first of its kind wellness ‘food is medicine’ holistic bar and restaurant, with non-alcoholic cocktails and nootropics, alongside six distinct training performance and exercise zones, thermal baths, recovery, anti-ageing and bio-hacking experiences, holistic medicinal and ancient treatments, a members lounge and co-working space that will help embrace what Gurner says is one of the most important elements to health - social connection. 

“Saint Haven will allow its members access to the world’s most progressive, science-backed innovations in rejuvenation, longevity and anti-ageing, just as I have been able to unlock the benefits of these practices in my own journey."

“Beyond this first Collingwood concept we certainly have aspirations to expand, first across Australia with many venues locked in and then into America – with a key focus on LA in the first instance as a key wellness hub of the world."

The investment into the fit-out alone is rumoured to be in the vicinity of $7.5 million.

Render of the bar in Saint Haven. Image supplied. 

The move back into the health and wellness sector is an important and strategic move by Gurner, as he continues to diversify his business into adjacent industries while building the Gurner brand. 

“This is not a small play for us, we have been planning this for over 10 years and had a full-time team working on the concept for over 18 months to ensure we deliver something truly unique."

“We will be announcing adjacent wellness brands alongside Saint Haven in the future that will further broaden the wellness part of the business."

“We are looking to become a major player in the space and offer something completely unique to the big chains that exist in Australia today. Not only do we have absolute belief in the model we have created and the unique nature of the product, service and experience, but we have the benefit of our team’s 15 plus years of development knowledge and expertise which allows us to look at growth opportunities both objectively and strategically.”

Saint Haven joins a growing list of developments for Gurner, having recently launched the first tower in the group's Surfers Paradise project, La Pelago. 

In a joint venture with investment house Wingate, Aquia will rise 65-storeys, with the first stage of apartments dubbed The Resort Residences, which will deliver a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments, ranging from $525,000 up to $1.8 million.

With four towers planned for the site, Gurner also recently announced the launch of Australia’s first luxury St. Regis Hotel in La Pelago, which is a major coup for the top end of the Gold Coast and is set to only bolster Gurner's profile world-wide. 

Following Tim’s own obsession with unlocking ultimate performance of mind and body, which has seen him work with some of the leading minds in health, nutrition, meditation and science to trial a host of different anti-ageing, bio-hacking and performance-enhancing practices and equipment within his own home, Saint Haven brings these practices and learnings together in an ultra-exclusive private club environment.

“Through my wellness journey I had always seen it as a limitation of the industry that I could never access all the treatments and services together in one place, i was always one venue for a gym, another for a recovery studio, and another for medicinal or alternative health treatments – no one has ever integrated it all into one holistic space."

It is a full circle evolution for Gurner, who founded Saint Haven after a 20-year health journey that began with opening a gym at the age of 21, followed by two decades of research and investigation into the world’s leading bio-hacking and longevity practices, spending millions of dollars researching the best technologies and ancient principles from around the world.

“I have always been obsessed with health and wellness as I truly believe there is no asset more important than our own health and wellbeing. I want to live every day with energy, passion, love, empathy and vigour and Saint Haven has been created to give people that feeling every day."

Saint Haven brings together expertise from many of Tim Gurner’s own private and personal peak performance team of health professionals who have collaborated on many of the programs, rituals and protocols that will be on offer to members.

“Over the past decade I have been able to surround myself with a team of world-leading professionals to help me unlock my own peak performance by integrating hard training, supplementation, meditation, nutrition, science-backed research and ancient practices into my own routine," Gurner said. 

According to a recent report by the Global Wellness Institute, which valued the global wellness market at $4.3 trillion in 2017, the market is set to grow by 10 percent per annum through to 2025 where it will reach $7 trillion in market value. The report outlines that by 2023, Asia-Pacific will overtake North America as the largest wellness consumer.

“Globally, the anti-ageing and beauty sector accounts for 24 percent of total industry revenue, with nutrition and weight loss coming in second at around 15 percent. Wellness tourism is also on the rise, but until now, there has never been any concept that brings all these different disciplines and pillars of health into one luxurious space. Saint Haven is set to change that."

In Australia, the wellness industry revenue is projected to grow over the next five years to $2.3 billion, while an estimated 7.7 million Australian adults were paying participants of gyms, yoga studios and Pilates classes in 2020.

“Longer term, we will go where the market takes us. We have the capital, the expertise and the market knowledge to grow the concept at scale, when it makes strategic sense given the microeconomic climate of each location we look at,” he added.

The Saint Haven portfolio marks the continued diversification of the Gurner Group - the parent company of development arm Gurner™ - which, over the past 10 years, has evolved from an entrepreneurial brand to an institutional-grade corporate business. The Group spans five unique business units across multiple divisions including both Build-to-Sell and Build-to-Rent property development, hospitality, operations and wellness.

The brands now operate under the umbrella of the Gurner Group parent company, which is serviced by a team of 90+ across three offices in Melbourne, Sydney and now Brisbane, with former Southern Cross Austereo CFO Nick McKechnie recently appointed as the Gurner Group CFO. The first Saint Haven will open its doors in Collingwood in March 2023.