Billionaire Racing Titan Plots Gold Coast Highrises

It is the biggest sand grab along the Gold Coast’s hottest half-kilometre of absolute beachfront property.

An almost 4000sq m dunal patch on the Surfers Paradise oceanfront along Garfield Terrace that has been secured in a handful of deals totalling about $125 million.

Entities linked to billionaire John Camilleri, the breeder of legendary racehorse Winx, and business partner George Tsekouras are the listed purchasers, according to property records.

And in the frantic flush of development applications filed in the lead up to the Christmas-New Year period, it has been revealed how they expect the sizeable wager to pay dividends.

The duo’s Sydney-based Celestino Developments is planning a landmark development comprising two sculptural towers—rising 48 and 55 storeys—that will house 275 luxury two, three and four-bedroom apartments.

Under the scheme, the towers would be linked at levels 45 and 47 by skybridges designed to “foster community at height” and featuring “exclusive VIP amenities and wellness amenties”—including executive lounges, formal dining as well as private terrace areas.

“The proposed skybridge features harken to internationally renowned architecture such as the Petronas towers of Kuala Lumpur, Za’abeel of Dubai, Raffles City or Marina Bay Sands of Singapore…[and] will deliver a unique addition to the skyline,” the application said.

Overall, the proposal spans 3983sq m across five holdings at 63-79 Garfield Terrace—just up the road from the Northcliffe Surf Life Saving Club—with 90m of direct frontage to the beach.

▲ Rendering of the two-tower scheme proposed for an amalgamated site on the Surfers Paradise beachfront.

If approved, it would be the city’s first absolute beachfront development of scale since the triple tower Jewel development was completed in 2020 along nearby Old Burleigh Road.

As first signalled by The Urban Developer back in 2021, renewed focus in the Gold Coast’s luxury apartment market has led to a significant rise in development activity along the stretch, where sites occupied by older-style beachfront buildings from the 1970s and 1980s are ripe for redevelopment.

The acquisitions by rich-lister Camilleri—who also heads up the Baiada Poultry empire, of which Tsekouras is a director and company secretary—were settled between September of 2024 and July of 2025.

They include transactions of $37.12 million for 63 Garfield Terrace, $34 million for 71 Garfield Terrace and $53.65 million for 75-79 Garfield Terrace. The holdings were offloaded by developers Luxcon Group, Iris Capital and Weiya Holdings with approvals in place.

“The applicant has invested considerable time and substantial economic undertakings in order to secure this comprehensive site … [and] has seized the opportunities afforded by the scale of the site and approached its redevelopment with a clear intent to deliver a distinctive tower and podium form,” a planning report prepared by Urban Planning Services said.

The larger northern tower would accommodate 127 apartments and the southern tower 148 units, both sharing a central green space.

▲ A rendering of the highrise proposal put forward for the absolute beachfront site on the Gold Coast.

The towers would rise from a five-storey podium topped with a landscaped recreational roof with resident lounges, private dining rooms, gym, a large open green lawn and 90m-plus pool stretching the entire eastern edge facing the beach as well as plunge pools, wellness rooms and yoga lawn.

On the ground level, a series of food and beverage tenancies are planned “to contribute to the vibrancy of the beachfront promenade”.

Lauded Gold Coast-based architecture firm DBI was engaged to design the dual tower proposal with a vision to provide “a new benchmark for beachfront residential living on the Gold Coast”.

“The project occupies a rare, uninterrupted oceanfront site and has been shaped by a design philosophy that merges architectural elegance with environmental responsiveness and a carefully curated lifestyle experience,” a design statement said.

“The architecture draws inspiration from the fluidity and movement of the coastal landscape. Each tower is defined by organic, curving forms and continuous balcony ribbons that wrap the buildings, providing deep shading, enhancing environmental performance, and reinforcing the rhythmic, sculptural expression of the facade.”

Meanwhile, at the northern end of Surfers Paradise, Camilleri has plans to develop a 40-storey tower with 93 apartments on a triangular-shaped holding at 3464-3468 Main Beach Parade. It would replace a 10-storey apartment building known as Pacific Point and a three-level duplex.

The Fairway Thoroughbreds businessman swooped with a $30-million offer to secure the site in April of 2024, exchanging contracts with Hong Kong billionaire developer and fellow racing industry identity Tony Fung.

Directly across the road from the beach, it was amalgamated by Fung for about $24 million in 2016, with initial plans for a $440-million, 48-storey hotel with 580 rooms greenlit the following year.

The much-hyped project never got out of the ground and, after an abandoned bid to offload the site, new plans for two residential towers rising 30 and 36 storeys with 83 apartments were approved in late 2021.

But shortly after his purchase of the site, Camilleri lodged new plans paring back the greenlit two-tower proposal, reverting to a single-tower scheme.