New hotel and marina planned for Great Keppel island
A Sunshine Coast developer is planning to build a multi-millon-dollar hotel and marina on Queensland’s Great Keppel Island.
Altum Constructions has agreed to buy the 160-hectare lease from owner Tower Holdings, with the Queensland government committing to deliver water, power and fibre optic cable to the development.
Located at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, Great Keppel has languished on the market for five years following two devastating cyclones.
The sale comes after Altum’s unsuccessful bid for nearby Dunk Island.
Speaking to the Sunshine Coast Daily, Altum construction director Rob McCready said Great Keppel was “the best island off Queensland with the best beaches and a fantastic climate with half the rainfall of the northern Great Barrier Reef and no stingers”.
“It is critical tourism infrastructure. In the past decade there has been a 50 percent increase in tourism to Queensland but only a 12 to 13 percent increase in Central Queensland,” he said.
A 250-room beachfront hotel, 300 luxury apartments, 285 luxury villas, 9,000sqm of retail shops and a 250-berth marina have development approval on the island, while approval has also been given for the airstrip to be extended from 800 metres to 1.5 kilometres to allow greater visitor access and direct flights from Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns.
The sale follows a previous $50 million deal from Wei Chao Pty that fell through.
Sheridan Randall, 9th October 2019
