Developers Team Up for 13-Storey Chevron Island Tower

The clamour to build on the Gold Coast’s Chevron Island shows no signs of abating, with a Melbourne-based developer winning council approval for 30 apartments within a 13-storey mixed-use tower.

Family-owned and operated BivCorp will team with Yoxon Management, run by 36-year-old Surfers Paradise resident Daniel Yoxon, to develop two lots across an 842sq m site on Thomas Street, the island’s main thoroughfare.

Yoxon Management, which acquired the land about three years ago, has won approval for a material change of use allowing for a 43.4m-tall building with podium, ground floor commercial tenancy and car-parking for about 50 within two basement levels.

The medium-rise development will include 20 two-bedroom and 10 three-bedroom apartments. Rooftop communal space includes a pool, deck area, barbecue facilities and lounges.

Existing two and three-level commercial tenancies fronting Thomas Drive will be demolished to make way for the project.

West Melbourne’s Point Architects are responsible for the design.

Bivcorp’s development director Christian Biviano said construction would not begin until 2024.

“DA approval only gives you town planning,” he said.

“It doesn’t give you the right to build the building. I’ve now got civil engineering, structural engineering, working documents, working drawings, interior designs, and then finding a builder. So that’s at least a year process.”

▲ The medium-rise development will include 20 two-bedroom and 10 three-bedroom apartments, plus rooftop communal space.

It’s the second time Bivcorp and Yoxon Management have teamed up for a development on Chevron Island. The partners have permits for an eight-storey mixed-use tower at 235-237 Stanhill Drive. The tower, with just 10 high-end apartments, is due to begin construction next year.

In filing the latest application, town planners Zone Planning Group said Chevron Island comprised a mix of low to mid-rise residential development ranging from detached dwellings to apartment buildings, much of which is older stock.“Several approvals for high-rise apartment buildings have been granted on the island in recent years; however, none have yet been completed.”

In a sign of the number of development applications filed for Chevron Island projects, it’s not the first time Zone Planning has made that same point to Gold Coast Council.

Just last week, Zone Planning wrote similarly in an application on behalf of Southport-based Legion Property Group, who plan a pair of residential towers to rise 36 storeys in the centre of Chevron Island.

In fact, in the past 12 months there’s been a flurry of development applications for Chevron Island, in part because of an unlimited building-height designation for much of the neighbourhood.

Applications for at least a dozen new tower developments have been lodged in advance of possible new height restrictions.

Just a month ago Vaun Developments filed plans for a 20-storey eight apartment tower—designed by Plus Architecture—in the heart of Chevron Island.

And two weeks ago Aniko Group received the green light for its own $105-million, 22-storey tower on three adjoining lots of 1518sq m in Weemala Street in the south-east pocket of the island.