Meriton Unveils New Soaring Gold Coast Tower Plan

Planning I Phil Bartsch I 22 Aug 24 I The Urban Developer

The Gold Coast is just wild about Australia's highrise king Harry Triguboff, and clearly the feeling is mutual.

Triguboff’s Meriton Group has lodged plans for a 74-storey tower comprising 519 apartments on the Surfers Paradise beachfront.

By the developer’s calculations, it will be his 24th addition to the coastal strip's famed skyline.

Having created more than 5000 apartments on the Gold Coast to date, Triguboff’s significant legacy cannot be denied.

And with Meriton's latest proposed tower—to be known as Shore—he is looking to make yet another lofty statement on the city’s development landscape.?

Under the plans, the tower is to be adorned with LED lighting and capped with a roofscape clad in dark-tinted glazing “punctuated by 24 vertical gold sticks which have been designed to be lit at night”.

The 91-year-old billionaire spent $67.5 million in May last year to secure the amalgamated 3460sq m site spanning 126 The Esplanade, 2 Ocean Avenue and 3313-3315 Surfers Paradise Boulevard.

At the time, Triguboff released a statement saying: “In Sydney you talk to the city’s town planners and get a ‘take it or leave’ attitude.

“That’s not the case on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane, where the planners and councils are fair and, if a rule clearly is wrong, they’ll change it.

“In other words, life’s a lot easier for me in Queensland.”

The site for Meriton’s proposed Shore tower sits between two of its other soaring highrise developments fronting The Esplanade—Ocean, to the south, and the under-construction Iconica, to the north.

If approved, it will replace a lowrise block of 12 units, a convenience store and bottle shop, along with its namesake, the 52-year-old medium-rise The Shore comprising 56 apartments.

“The proposed development seizes the opportunity to deliver a mixed-use environment promoting highly efficient use of the subject site,” a planning report said.

“Overall, [it] delivers an iconic built form that will contribute positively to reinforcing the evolving urban beachfront character and identity of its locality.”

According to the documents, the tower would accommodate a mix of one, two, three and four-bedroom apartments rising from four basement levels (including a lower ground floor) and a seven-level podium.

Two floors at levels 8 and 9 would provide communal open space and recreational facilities, including an outdoor swimming pool and spa, terrace areas, barbecue and outdoor dining spaces, indoor pool, sauna, residents lounge and gym.

To activate the development’s street frontages, six commercial tenancies are planned to accommodate food and drink outlets with alfresco dining spaces, and potentially a convenience store.

As well, onsite parking would be provided for 541 cars across the basement and podium levels.

Meriton engaged architects Cottee Parker to design the scheme for Shore.

“The design of Shore pays homage to the Gold Coast’s iconic shorelines, with bold lines and flowing forms that merge gracefully into a subtropical base,” its architectural statement said.

It desribed the tower design as a “slanted square…receding away from the corners of the site to create a sleek appearance” with its transition to the podium introducing a more rugged facade “reminiscent of sand dunes”.

“This juxtaposition of the sleek tower and abstracted landscape of the base creates a unique coastal architectural style...fostering a strong connection between the building, its occupants, and the surrounding environment.”

The latest development application by Meriton follows it being given the green light in May for its nearby two-tower Cypress Palms project, which includes Australia’s second tallest apartment building.

Scaled back from a triple tower scheme, it was replaced by plans for two buildings rising 91-storeys (302m) and 76-storeys (260m) with a combined 1307 apartments.

Melbourne’s 100-floor (319m) Australia 108 is the country’s tallest residential tower.

The Cypress Palms site is an amalgamation of nine lots spanning 8083sq m at 3346 Surfers Paradise Boulevard, the site at the northern edge of central Surfers Paradise that was the longstanding home of the city’s so-called Vomitron thrill ride.

AUTHOR Phil Bartsch