PROLIFIC developer Tim Gurner has entrenched himself further in Queensland, opening a new Brisbane office as his eponymous company works through a $2 billion pipeline of projects in the sunshine state.
Melbourne-based Gurner, who recently opened a Sydney office as well as making an entry into the Adelaide and Perth markets, has national pipeline of $10 billion in high-end residential projects.
The company has also recently appointed Rob Cooke as chief delivery officer and Jaime Cali as its Queensland project director, who joins after five and a half years as project director of the Destination Gold Coast consortium.
Cooke will work across all major projects after spending 20 years at Far East Consortium following a period at Multiplex, while Cali previously led the development of the consortium’s $2 billion dollar masterplan and the delivery of the first two stages at The Star Gold Coast. She will join three other local Gurner team members in Queensland at a recently established Brisbane head office, to be led by Gurner and Cooke.
Gurner’s Queensland projects are headlined by the $1.5 billion La Pelago island precinct, consisting of four residential towers and hotel and which is expected to hit the market in 2023.
The sunshine state pipeline also includes a recently-acquired Burleigh development and a 250-plus apartment project in Fortitude Valley next to Gurner’s $500 million FV asset, which was completed in 2017 and consists of 1,000 apartments over three 30-storey towers.
The company said it is also looking at further acquisitions in Brisbane, Gold Coast and surrounding locations, and is aiming for Queensland to represent roughly 10 to 15% its pipeline in the coming years.
“Queensland is a big part of our brand’s history and will continue to be a huge strategic focus for us in the next two to five years,” Gurner said.
“We believe the Gold Coast in particular is going through a once-in-a-generation reinvigoration and we plan to be at the forefront of this with a presence across residential, hotel, hospitality and wellness brands.”
Gurner said it is a “very interesting time” in Queensland with construction pricing causing “a lot of angst” in the industry.
“We are aware of what is going on and that upheaval in the market is one of the big reasons for our focus on the region.
“We have been through this cycle before in Brisbane with FV and so we are aware of how it plays out and confident that the market will calibrate and construction prices will drop again, as there is absolutely no work in the pipeline beyond mid-year for anything major scale residential, with a large number of jobs pulled or not going ahead.
“That huge drop in supply combined with the incredible demand from state migration is setting up Queensland to be a great place for us to invest into the future.”
