Harry Triguboff's Meriton spends $67.5 million on another Esplanade, Surfers Paradise site
High-rise king Harry Triguboff’s confidence in Surfers Paradise has surged to a new peak.
The Meriton founder is spending $67.5 million on a beachfront tower site a stroll from the tourism capital’s heart, in the middle of his two most recent towers, Iconica and Ocean.
The Esplanade land, with two other street frontages, currently homes the 52-year-old high-rise, The Shore, as well as The Dolphins boutique apartment block and a number of high-street retail spaces. The amalgamation of the 56 apartments of The Shore took over two years.
The deal has taken the veteran developer’s spending on Surfers Paradise sites over the past year to more than $176 million.
Triguboff has said is putting his Gold Coast wallet away for the time being and had no plans for more buys.
Triguboff, 90, said the latest purchase was not just a sign of confidence in Surfers Paradise, but also a reflection on how much easier it was to do business on the Gold Coast than in Sydney.
“In Sydney you talk to the city’s town planners and get a ‘take it or leave’ attitude," Triguboff said.
“That’s not the case on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane, where the planners and councils are fair and, if a rule clearly is wrong, they’ll change it.
“In other words, life’s a lot easier for me in Queensland.”
Triguboff, a $23 billion man, said he planned both retail and rental projects on his new Surfers buy and might include serviced apartments in the mix.
He last week spent $130 million on what he termed ‘the best site in Brisbane’, The Gardens apartments holding overlooking the Botanic Gardens.
His new north-east facing Surfers site spans 3534 sqm and is north of Ocean, a 76-floor building Meriton completed on The Esplanade last year after earlier bowling another old high-rise, one which started life as the Apollo.
Last year Triguboff bought land at the northern end of The Esplanade for $75 million and has the twin towers Iconica underway.
Earlier this year he settled the $34.352 million purchase of the bulk of the whole city block that is known as the Vomitron site and is earmarked for three towers, one of them the city’s tallest.
