Gold Coast Tower ‘Needs’ Extra 12 Storeys to Stack Up

Twelve storeys will need to be added to an approved Gold Coast apartment tower project to make it viable, a developer has claimed in a revised proposal.

Reworked plans have been filed by Gold Coast developer Brian Heran upscaling his proposed Ovation tower at Main Beach from 20 storeys to 32 storeys.

The change application cites soaring construction costs as having impacted the project’s feasibility, necessitating the 60 per cent height increase to achieve a greater apartment yield.

Under the revised scheme, the number of apartments has been increased from 31 to 49 with a mix of two to five-bedroom units. The 18 additional apartments are all three-bedroom units.

As well as going up by almost 41m—taking the tower’s overall height from 66m to 106.8m—another basement level would be needed to accommodate the extra car parking required.

That would mean digging down to provide not four but five basement levels.

“The need to undertake these changes has arisen from the continued escalation of construction costs, which have adversely affected the economic viability of the original approval,” a planning report said.

It also noted that while working to get its approved development at 3547 Main Beach Parade to stack up, Heran Building Group had been in the throes of constructing another nearby tower.

“The applicant is well aware of these issues in the Main Beach locality, given they are currently constructing the 39-storey Midwater apartment building at 3496 Main Beach Parade,” the report said.

▲ Renders of Heran's reworked Ovation tower plans at Main Beach.

Heran was given the green light for its Ovation tower in May last year following a drawn out line-in-the-sand legal stoush over the refusal of a redesign of the beachfront tower.

The controversial tower proposal earmarked for a 1261sq m site on the corner of Main Beach Parade and Woodroffe Avenue was knocked back twice during the three-year battle.

An approval to build a 20-storey tower on the site was initially granted in 2018, a year after the council rejected a 50-storey proposal with 143 apartments and a mixed-use podium.

In 2020, a new tower design—with an increased overall height, reduced setbacks and number of apartments as well as revised external design—was submitted but refused by the council.

▲ Renders of the approved 20-storey Ovation tower design (left) and the revised 32-storey proposal.

 An appeal by the developer to the Planning and Environment Court was dismissed in 2021 with the second design deemed non-compliant with the City Plan as it would “crowd” the surrounding area.

It then took the fight to the Supreme Court but the council’s decision to refuse approval again was upheld.

Subsequently, the developer went back to the drawing board and undertook a third redesign that was given the go-ahead.

Its latest and fourth reworking of the scheme comes as an increasing number of developers revisit their project designs in the face of prevailing industry challenges.