Gold Coast’s Greatest Moments Yet to Come: Evan Raptis

Evan Raptis is going with his gut instinct and has pulled out the cautious card on the question of how much luxury is too much on the Gold Coast. “I’m sensing an oversupply looming,” the Raptis Private joint managing director says. “It’s not here yet. It’s probably 12 to 18 months away. “But there’s a lot of that upper-end stock—the ultra luxury one or two-apartment-per-floor product—being developed and, personally, that scares me and I want to stay out of it. “So we’re sticking to our knitting in that sub $4-million range because we see quite a bit of continuity in that price point.” His level of caution is understandable but not just because of the surge in super luxe projects on the coastal strip that has pushed prices to a record $30,000-plus per square metre. Raptis is also the second generation of a highrise development dynasty whose patriarch is one of the industry’s great survivors and synonymous with the evolution of the Gold Coast’s famed skyline. Being a developer is hard enough at the moment. But possibly nowhere near as hard as being the son emerging from the shadow of veteran city-shaper Jim Raptis, an unstoppable development force whose property empire has twice collapsed but had Lazarus-like comebacks and prevailed. Not that the gently-spoken Evan Raptis is complaining. Far from it. And although he is an only child, the 36-year-old is not alone in the Gold Coast property sector’s generational changing of the guard. ▲ Renderings of the project Evan and Jim Raptis have most recently completed, Pearl at Main Beach on the Gold Coast. The sons from several of the city’s other high-profile development clans—with names like Nikiforides, Lacey, Puljich and Abedian—also have been progressively stepping up to carry on and grow the vision and legacy of their fathers. “I was never pushed into this business,” Raptis says. “It’s a tough business but I’ve always just loved it. “Every school holiday Dad would take me to work with him. And I really liked it—until he told me I’d be spending a couple of days in the accounting department. I was about 14 and it was like ‘Dad, I don’t really want to know about accounting’. “But looking back, I’m extremely thankful he offered me those opportunities because it’s given me a holistic view of the business.” His enthusiasm has never waned. Even when things were going pear-shaped for his father with ASX-listed Raptis Group during the early 1990s recession-driven property crash, and then again in 2008 in the thick of the global financial crisis. “You just have to persevere and push through,” Raptis says. “Everyone makes mistakes and that’s just the nature of being in business and trying to move forward and create something. “And I think some of those traits from Dad have rubbed off on me … but if anything, having seen all that it’s just made me a bit more cautious and steady in my business approach and what I do going forward.” Raptis was only 21 when he and colleague George Mastrocostas embarked on Cove 35, their debut development as Emandar Group, comprising 45 one-bedroom units at Runaway Bay. ▲ The Link Nundah was among projects developed by Raptis and George Mastrocostas as Emandar Group. “I remember the Gold Coast was oversupplied at the time and the market was absolutely dead,” he says. “So it was like what can we develop that’s in a location where it’s affordable and we know we can sell it and get in and out quickly … and it ended up doing well. Things just progressed from there.” Together, the duo developed 11 projects on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane—the last being two buildings of 300 units at Varsity Lakes—before Raptis decided to return to the family fold and they went their separate ways. Mastrocostas’s Aniko Group is now behind The Landmark, a four-tower mixed-use development next to Pacific Fair Shopping Centre at Mermaid Beach. Meanwhile, Raptis and father Jim have undertaken several highrise projects along the coastal strip—most recently completing Pearl at Main Beach and beginning construction on The Sterling at Broadbeach, both comprising 80 apartments across 21 levels. Another project in the pipeline is the final 10-storey sixth tower of the Waterpoint development at Biggera Waters that will include 35 units and 5 townhouses. As well, the father-and-son team is working up plans for yet another Raptis tower in the Broadbeach area that will be revealed later this year. “I do feel that the Gold Coast has got a phenomenal story to tell for the next decade, leading up to the Olympics … and given we’re going to have some events down here it’ll really put the city on the international map,” Raptis says. But he also expects there will be more challenges ahead. “The Gold Coast is probably the most expensive place in the country at the moment to develop, just purely from the lack of builders,” he says. “But also moving forward—with the Brisbane Olympics and the infrastructure spend that’s coming—a lot of the trades will be sucked into that government infrastructure space. ▲ Renderings of The Sterling at Broadbeach, comprising 80 apartments across 21 levels and now under construction. “So developers are naturally going to have to balance that out and work that out in terms of what’s realistically viable.” Nevertheless, Raptis believes there will be opportunities and the city is already holding a trump card—Gold Coast fanboy Harry Triguboff and his Meriton highrise development juggernaut. “The whole of Australia has got confidence in Harry … he’s delivered thousands and thousands of apartments and is at a scale now where really nothing can go wrong as a business. “As a developer-builder we have a similar model to his but far, far smaller—just a modest family business by comparison. “I just take my hat off to the guy. And we’re fortunate as a market to have him here because it’s good stability for the Gold Coast, having such a big player in town and knowing what he’s got in his pipeline and what he’s delivering currently. It’s a nice foundation. “Because a lot of people look to Harry and what he does, and if he’s in a market then he’s there because he sees future, long-term growth.” Raptis says his 78-year-old father—just like the 92-year-old Triguboff—still “lives and breathes” the property development business. He came to the Gold Coast in the 1970s from Sydney where he had been dabbling in developing blocks of flats on the city’s fringes. Meeting his future wife, Helen, and realising the development potential in the then burgeoning city wasn’t bad either, he stayed and made his mark by transforming the skyline—notably with landmark Mediterranean-themed highrise projects as well as city-shaping mixed-use, multi-tower precincts such as Chevron Renaissance and Southport Central. ▲ Jim Raptis completed the three-tower Chevron Renaissance on the Gold Coast in 2005. “He still loves it. So it’s difficult for him to pass over [the business] but he’s slowly relinquishing control a little bit more and we run it together, which is hugely enjoyable for me just learning the business from him everyday,” Raptis says. “As a family, we’ve been through a lot. There’s been ups and there’s been downs as well. Unfortunately, everyone hears more about the downs than the ups in this industry. “But I think for us now it comes down to being passionate about what we do, and to just keep trying our best to deliver good product in good locations at a good price.” And while Raptis is taking a measured slow and steady-as-she-goes approach for the moment, don’t be fooled into thinking he hasn’t got his own bold and ambitious designs on the Gold Coast skyline. “It just comes down to timing,” he says.

Gold Coast’s Greatest Moments Yet to Come: Evan Raptis

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