‘The Ocean is the Architecture’: Graya Reveals Beachfront Debut at Palm Beach
Luxury residential builder-developer Graya has lifted the lid on the design of its first absolute beachfront project on the Gold Coast.
Plans lodged this week mark the first look at the proposed $100-million development—to be known as Coral—along the exclusive dunal strip of Jefferson Lane at Palm Beach.
And while much of its high-end heavy lifting is clearly in the design, its award-winning architect Koichi Takada sees it a different way.
“Jefferson Lane is one of those rare sites where the environment does the work,” he said.
“The proximity to the ocean, the quality of the light, the openness of the coastline. Our role is to design a building that belongs here. Coral should feel as though it grew from this landscape, not as though it was placed on it.”
Graya’s co-founders, brothers Rob and Andrew Gray, engaged Takada for the project following an earlier collaboration for a retail/office development in Brisbane’s James Street precinct.
“Our relationship with Koichi began with The Pavilion, and from that first conversation we knew Jefferson Lane was a site he had to be part of,” Rob Gray said.
“This is an absolute beachfront on one of the Gold Coast’s finest stretches of sand. It required an architect who understands that the ocean is the architecture. Koichi sees that instinctively.”
Overall, the proposed scheme would deliver 12 apartments across nine levels—all with direct ocean frontage.
The 814sq m double block was acquired by Graya in March from billionaire media heir Ryan Stokes for $23.5 million, reflecting a rate of $28,869 per square metre and a new benchmark for Palm Beach.
At the time, Rob Gray told The Urban Developer that he had been zealously traipsing up and down the fabled Jefferson Lane every second weekend for four years, compiling a development hit list.
Each absolute beachfront block was noted and ranked in terms of its suitability for a future dream project.
“This one I actually put in my ‘It’ll be impossible to buy’ category,” he said.
But out of the blue the holding at 39-41 Jefferson Lane was brought to them off-the-market and they seized the opportunity.
The lodging of the plans for the site follows the completion of Graya’s nearby 12-storey Kloud project on the non-beachfront western side of Jefferson Lane, which delivered $77.6 million in sales across its 23 apartments—including a sale to tennis champion Ash Barty.
Its next-level foray along the strip is again targeting the high-net-worth buyer pool with apartments expected to be priced from $5 million to more than $10 million.
“Kloud proved the depth of demand for premium product on Jefferson Lane,” Andrew Gray said.
“Coral takes everything we learned and applies it to a finer site, a more refined product and an architect whose vision matches the ambition of the position. Beachfront residences of this quality do not exist on the Gold Coast. That is what Coral will deliver.”
