Surfers Site Back on Block Nine Years After Spirit Plans Filed

The former site of the Iluka at Surfers Paradise is on the market nearly a decade after plans for an 89-storey skyscraper were filed for the block.

The consortium that owns the 3494sq m site, 3 Trickett Street Pty Ltd, has listed the site via an expressions-of-interest campaign being handled by Canford Estate Agents’ Roland Evans.

The site holds approval for the mixed-use development that includes retail, hotel, commercial and restaurant tenancies across the tower podium.

The site fronts three streets: the Esplanade, and Trickett and Hanlan streets.

In 2015, developer Forise Investment Australia Pty Ltd acquired the site, formley home to the Iluka tower, from Vista Investments for $65 million, according to CoreLogic property records.

The 20-storey Iluka Surfers Paradise was built in 1971 and demolished in 2013 after concrete cancer destroyed its structural integrity. Along with the St Tropez, Iluka as the first tower on the Glitter Strip to reach 20 storeys.

Forise then put forward plans for what would have been the third-tallest tower in Australia, Spirit, with 89 floors, six basements and 470 residential apartments.

The plans by DBI Design also included three pools on three recreation levels and a penthouse with a $41-million price tag.

▲ DBI Design’s render of the Spirit tower when it was proposed in 2015 by Forise Investments, part of the Fu Hua Group.

It was valued at approximately $1.2 billion.

The Gold Coast City Council granted planning approval in September, 2015 with the intent that the building would be completed by 2020.

Forise then spent about $40 million ensuring the basement levels would not be flooded with the construction of a 46m basement diaphragm wall, 59.5m of barette foundations and 40.5m of bored piles.

But when Forise’s parent company, the Fu Hua Group, ran into financial trouble in September 2018, the Spirit project came to market and was sold in February, 2019 at a loss for $56.5 million to the 3 Trickett Street Pty Ltd consortium and settled in May, according to CoreLogic property records.

At the time, the consortium was made up of a Macau-based casino boss Keung Kuong Loi and his family that held 60 per cent of the shares, and Gold Coast billionaire Ri Yu Li’s Ridong Australia with 10 per cent. Macau residents Kun Man Ieong and Chi Wai Leong had 10 and 20 per cent shares of the consortium respectively at the time. 

A few months later, Li sold his 10 per cent to Loi, giving Loi 70 per cent of the shares in the consortium.

ASIC records show that Ieong and Leong still hold those shares through their own companies Man Rich International and Gain Rich International but that in December, 2021, Hong Kong-born and now NSW-based Cecilia Ho was added as a director to 3 Trickett Street Pty Ltd.

The expressions of interest campaign for the site closes on May 30, 2024.

Evans was contacted by The Urban Developer for comment.

▲ The Iluka at Surfer Paradise was one of the first towers on the Glitter Strip to reach 20 storeys.