First look exclusive: Abedian family line up next Gold Coast apartment development after multiple site acquisitions
Fresh off the back of redesigning their Coolangatta development on one of the best sights in the southern Gold Coast, the Abedian family, who have been at the forefront of Gold Coast development for four decades, is continuing to bolster its local development pipeline.
Urban can reveal the Abedian family, who is now operating under their private family development arm Arium having closed up Sunland in 2022, has secured several adjoining sites on Mary Avenue, Broadbeach, facing the Broadbeach State School which means viewlines to the beach and the ocean are protected.
They bought the amalgamated 1,518 sqm site across 14-18 Mary Avenue that had been earmarked for Eternity, the second Broadbeach tower by Leo Sarris's Bassar Group following on from their nearby completed project Infinity.
Arium has now emerged as the buyer of the site next door at 20 Mary Avenue, a skinnier site at just over 600 sqm that had been owned by the Melbourne-based Little Projects.
Little Projects secured the site in 2021 and initially laid plans for a skinny but luxury luxury whole-floor development dubbed Aperture.
Nearly all of the 29 apartments across the 34-level Elenberg Fraser tower were spoken for, with sales predominantly driven by the COVID-induced boom on the Gold Coast.
However, the Gold Coast City Council knocked back the project and Little Projects went back to the drawing board, cutting the tower in half and creating a curved facade. At the time of lodgement, the developer put the site up for sale but failed to find a buyer. The newly designed project, Atelier, is approved with council with 17 apartments.
The side-by-side sites now total over 2,100 sqm and allow Arium to create something more likely to be financially feasible compared to smaller buildings on narrower sites.
Sahba Abedian, son of Soheil Abedian who founded Sunland back in 1983, announced the family back in the development scene in May 2023 when they filed plans for a new luxury project on the Greenmount Beach Hotel site, a site that was bought from Sunland for over $42 million through an onmarket campaign.
They had planned for a spaceship-looking tower by Contreras Earl Architecture that would have had 54 apartments across 16 levels. However, in March they sought to change up the design, instead opting to create a two buildings on the sprawling 7,071 sqm block which will have 63 apartments.
Arium is only using two of the three sites as part of the Coolangatta development. They advise a 2,934 sqm portion on the corner of Eden Avenue and Hill Street will be used for stage two of the project.
The Abedian family shut up shop of Sunland Group in 2022, shedding its assets and finishing its final tower, the luxury Mermaid Beach tower 272 Hedges Avenue.
Sunland was behind some of the Gold Coast's most well-known buildings, including Palazzo Versace and Q1.
When telling shareholders Sunland was exiting the development game, the Abedian family always said they would run a private development company.
