Gallery, Vitale Team Up for 44-Storey Glitter Strip Skyscraper

The developer behind Burleigh Heads’ landmark dual-tower Mondrian hotel and residences, Chris Vitale, has raised the curtain on his next big Gold Coast play. And it’s probably not what you’re thinking. In a strategic pivot from beachfront ultra-luxury, his family’s Vitale Property Group is moving into the realm of so-called affordable luxury in a joint venture with Adam Barclay’s Gallery Group. It has lodged plans for a slender elliptical 44-storey tower on a closely watched 2070sq m site at the southern edge of Surfers Paradise that has been the subject of a string of development proposals and approvals over recent years. The latest revised scheme for the parcel at 205-211 Surf Parade comprises 338 apartments rising 143m on the city’s famed skyline—a significant uplift, more than tripling the 99-unit yield of the existing 36-storey approval. Vitale Property Group and Gallery Group each hold a half share in the venture. Overall, it would deliver a mix of 330 two-bedroom apartments capped with eight three-bedroom corner penthouses across the tower’s top two residential levels. Gap in the Gold Coast pipeline “Obviously it’s a bit different to the Mondrian,” Vitale told The Urban Developer , noting that it was a strategic response to what he sees as a structural gap in the city’s pipeline. “It’s more of an affordable product [by current local standards], which is where we think the market is at the moment on the Gold Coast. “Unfortunately, these days affordable means $1.2 million to sort of $1.8 million. “But there’s not a lot of that product on the market at the moment. “There’s a lot of high-end product coming out of the ground … mainly all three-bedroom $5 million, $6 million, $7 million product. ▲ Renderings of the apartment skyscraper the joint-venture partners are proposing for the Surf Parade site. “So we’ve deliberately designed a building dominated by well-planned two-bedroom apartments. That is the product this market is crying out for—first home owners, downsizers, young professionals and investors alike, and it is in critically short supply on the Gold Coast. “That’s what we’re trying to deliver here but along with all the amenity.” Designed by architects Fraser &amp; Partners, the proposed tower is described in the submitted documents as “a materially rich expression of coastal modernism” incorporating salutogenesis wellness principles aimed at promoting collective and individual physical and mental preventative health. Under the plans, its amenities are spread across three levels—a podium-top wellness club with pools, terraces, cabanas, contrast therapy and a 168sq m gymnasium on level 7; a social club crowning the tower on level 43 with private dining rooms, games lounges, a golf simulator and a multi-use sports court; and a ground-floor residents’ work club with business lounges, boardrooms and meeting spaces as well as a cafe fronting Surf Parade. Anchored by a six-level podium and three basement levels, parking space would be provided for 395 vehicles and 51 bicycles. Right partner, right scheme Gallery Group managing director Adam Barclay said the joint venture brought together two complementary Queensland businesses. “We have held this site for some time and waited for the right partner and the right scheme,” he said. “Vitale brings genuine end-to-end delivery capability, development, construction and a track record on the southern Gold Coast and together we think this will be one of the standout residential towers in Surfers Paradise. “At a time when housing supply is the number one issue in South-East Queensland, getting well-located affordable apartments like these through the approvals process and into construction matters.” Delete The array of proposals previously put forward for the site range from luxury residential towers of varying heights to an upmarket six-storey backpackers hostel as well as plans for 18 terraced five-storey homes. Vitale said the joint venture was “an opportunity that came to us”. “We got introduced to the site by a third party and we liked the location,” Vitale told The Urban Developer . “So we said ‘Look, let’s do something together on it’. “Surf Parade is one of the last truly walkable pockets of Surfers Paradise, you are a couple of hundred metres from the beach, the light rail and everything the precinct offers, without being on the Esplanade.” And he believes the scheme is the most market-appropriate and deliverable iteration yet for the site—balancing height, density and feasibility with a sharper focus on depth of demand rather than record-setting prices. “We’ve done a lot of work on the design to make sure it’s feasible,” he said. “The site has obviously had quite a few development applications and approvals on it over the years. But we think this is the one that’s going to suit it the best.” Pending approval, construction is slated to begin in the first quarter of 2027, and is expected to take about three years.

Apartments
Phil Bartsch
Wed 19 Aug 26

Gallery, Vitale Team Up for 44-Storey Glitter Strip Skyscraper

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