As soon as the gravel crunched beneath his feet, Kokoda Property founder Mark Stevens had a vision for what the former sand quarry on the edge of the Brisbane River would become. 

It was not a bargain but it was “unrepeatable”, he says of the parcel in prestigious Teneriffe, a gentrified suburb about 2.5km from the CBD.

Kokoda spent more than $100 million, a record price, to acquire the 17.5ha waterfront site that neighbours an electrical substation and significant pylon linking the suburb to Bulimba across the river.