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LONDON: Boomers will underpin a luxury tower development now approved for a beach frontage overlooking one of the world’s most famous surf breaks.

The 12-storey Holm tower, put forward by development group Chapter Two, will be built on a 1924sq m site near Point Danger on Rainbow Bay’s Eden Ave. Its 86 units will watch over Snapper Rocks.

Council approved the tower this week after Chapter Two partners Jon Quayle and Oliver Bagheri fast-tracked the project to the market.

CBRE Gold Coast has been appointed to handle the sales campaign. Units will start from $800,000.

“Rainbow Bay is recognised as one of Australia’s premier beach destinations, north-facing like Noosa and Byron Bay but more accessible and attainable, with stunning lifestyle amenity, natural beauty and some of the coast’s best dining and entertainment,” Mr Quayle said.

“In all our developments, we love to showcase built form inspired by the natural beauty that surrounds it. Holm’s flowing curves, lush greenery, natural elements and light-filled spaces are timelessly Rainbow Bay.”

The tower will feature a mixture of two and three-bedroom apartments as well as two townhouses and a courtyard unit on the ground floor.

Chapter Two has a pipeline of 13 residential projects across Brisbane and the Gold Coast worth more than $300m.

Demand for apartments on the southern Gold Coast has never been stronger with the latest Urbis apartment essential report this month revealing the southern beaches market, which includes Coolangatta, remains in serious under-supply.

Just 45 units were on the market according to the most recent report.

The latest hunt for a development pot of gold beside the ocean at Coolangatta’s Rainbow Bay is not what it first appeared to be – a one-man show.

Company Wally Development last month filed a development application for a 12-level tower on the bay’s high ground, close to the Greenmount Resort.

Wally’s owned by Lu Li, who arrived in the country as a teenager more than 30 years ago and went on to gain degrees in law and finance.

His family built the first Quest hotel in Brisbane.

It’s emerged that Lu’s far from flying solo at Rainbow Bay – his foray is via Brisbane company CapDev, in which he has teamed up with former corporate property players Jon Quayle and Oliver Bagheri.

CapDev also is not flying solo – it has a couple of Gold Coast property industry joint-venture partners, one being Joel and Laura Percey’s Kingabella group.

The other is Rob Steer’s Steer Developments, who is involved in plans to undertake a $50 million redevelopment of the Ashmore Steak and Seafood restaurant site.

It seems the three companies tied the development knot a year or so ago and quickly committed to boutique ventures at Palm Beach and Tugun.

The 94-apartment Rainbow Bay tower is earmarked for a four-title holding assembled over six months in Eden Ave, a one-way street.

The JV is believed to be paying $13 million or more for the land, which adjoins a site on which Christie Leet’s Sherpa group is building 16 homes.

The Arvia tower, where prices have topped $3 million, is nearby on the opposite side of Eden Ave and Brisbane architect Joe Adsett is planning a 13-floor tower, Rockpool, next to the Greenmount resort.

The CapDev team’s move comes as Paul Gedoun, the Brisbane developer whose already found a couple of pots of gold nearby with elite towers Flow and Point Danger’s Awaken, is well on the way to another win.

His Esprit, a $130 million venture which sits between Eden Ave and Boundary St, locked in $71 million of sales in its first weekend on the market.

The CapDev JV is cutting its Gold Coast teeth with Callista, four ‘beach houses’ at Palm Beach which start at $1.785 million.

The partners also are chasing approval for another six, starting at nearly $2 million, at Tugun.

Property insiders say the partners are negotiating over $20 million worth of new sites, including a waterfront one at Surfers Paradise and boutique one at Coolangatta.

Prices in the planned Rainbow Bay tower, which will include three town homes, have been tipped to start in the $800,000s.

The building, if it gets a planning green light, won’t be launched until next year and is likely, given the Gedoun success at Esprit, to have little new stock with which to compete.

Meanwhile, the three men behind CapDev have more to focus on than the Gold Coast joint ventures.

Their company says it has $250 million worth of its own projects across south-east Queensland and that it’s also backing other developers, builders and property-related businesses.