S&S Projects Plans Tallest Palm Beach Tower in 37 Years

S&S Projects has filed plans to build the tallest modern tower in Palm Beach, on the doorstep of a future Gold Coast Light Rail station.

The 23-storey tower will be split into hotel rooms and apartments, with a café, restaurant, bar, day spa, gym and pool, at the corner of Palm Beach Avenue and 1128-1132 Gold Coast Highway, Palm Beach.

Currently the tallest towers in Palm Beach are 19th Avenue on the Beach, at 16 storeys, which was built in 1988; and the Royal Palm Resort, built in 1984, a 25-storey “anomaly” for the area, according to Gold Coast City Council.

Since then the beachside suburb has been under tight height restrictions. For this latest development the current limit is 39 metres.

If the plan is approved it could spark a flood of planning amendments and taller development applications for Palm Beach.

The S&S plans designed by Cottee Parker include 150 hotel apartments and 40 residential apartment in the 82.85m tower.

The tower’s two-storey podium will have a pool on top as well as five levels of basement parking with vehicular access from Palm Beach Avenue.

Th planned tower would replace the existing Collective restaurant and single-storey businesses on the 1230sq m site.

The built form and scale would be “consistent with the anticipated character of Palm Beach” as a centre zone with the introduction of the light rail.

According to the application, while the tower would be taller than surrounding developments it would be less than typically found in major centres on the urban strip including Broadbeach and Coolangatta.

“Palm Beach includes a number of recent approvals which have exceeded their sites’ designated building height,” the application said.

“As such, it is anticipated that the Palm Beach district centre shall also support uplifts in building height to thereby retain the centre’s legibility within Palm Beach.”

S&S Projects, led by Paul Gedoun, has a multitude of projects across the Gold Coast including a 12-storey apartment tower at Coolangatta hill which was approved earlier this year and plans for a $100-million-plus tower at Rainbow Bay, which were lodged in October.