Aland Heads Home After $19m Southport Sale

A brief cross-border foray into the Gold Coast market by privately held Aland came to an end this month when the Sydney residential developer off-loaded a site complete with approved plans for four towers up to 71 storeys.

The 1.1-ha Southport site took less than a month to change hands, fetching $19 million.

Aland founder Andrew Hrsto picked up the big undeveloped land opposite St Hilda’s School in Nerang Street in 2018.  It was his first look into the south-east Queensland market.

The developer won Gold Coast City Council approval for the staged project of four towers, which include 1156 apartments, 137 build-to-rent homes, parking for nearly 1000 vehicles and 680sq m of retail space. The Tony Owen Partners design includes four conference rooms and a 1369-seat theatre.

“My initial strategy when we bought Queensland was to go up there and start building but we've just got too much work going on in our backyard here in Sydney,” Hrsto said.

“We just kept buying more sites and our books kept getting bigger.  It no longer worked for us.”

In April, Aland broke ground on a $375-million twin-tower apartment and hotel complex on the NSW Central Coast.  Ground works have begun on the 5656sq m parcel which will house the two, 28-storey towers to be known as The Archibald, after Archibald Acheson, the second Earl of Gosford.

▲ A render of the tower approved for the Nerang Street, Southport site.

Hrsto said they had already sold 120 of the 320 apartments.

“And we’re in a heads-of-agreement with a decent player to manage the hotel,” he said.  

In March this year, and just a few months after lodging second stage plans for a 20-storey mixed-use tower, Aland filed documents for a third and final stage of The Gladstone Village project in Merrylands, about 25km west of the Sydney CBD.

Elsewhere Aland is building 289 apartments in St Marys, also west of Sydney’s centre, as well as adding eight levels to its previously approved mixed-use development in Harris Park, Parramatta, taking the building to 47 storeys.

Aland’s Southport site was picked up by Sydney property developer Virtical, headed by former investment banker Mark Toma.

Days earlier, Virtical—previously known as Core Asset Development—paid $25 million for one of downtown Melbourne’s best-known boutique hotels.  The Adelphi Hotel, with its distinctive swimming pool jutting out over Flinders Lane, opened in 1990 after an extensive renovation.