Why Harvey Norman CEO Katie Page built her own apartments on the Gold Coast

When businesswoman Katie Page decided she wanted to buy an apartment at Main Beach on the Gold Coast, she looked around at everything on offer and all projects planned.

Living already in a villa a street back from the sands, she knew the area well, but couldn’t find an apartment she really liked. So, instead, she decided to build it herself.

“There’s been a lot of high-rise building on the Gold Coast but not at this end of the market,” she says. “I was looking for something on the beach, but there was nothing that was my sort of architecture.

“And then there was this fantastic block of land that had been sitting vacant for a while and so everything came together …”

The result today is M3565, an eight-level boutique luxury building right on the water at Main Beach with just six whole-floor apartments and one two-level penthouse. Designed by award-winning architect Virginia Kerridge, with lots of natural timbers, raw tinted concrete and zinc, it’s the first  major development on the beachfront at Main Beach for almost 30 years.     

“It’s an exceptional development of unbelievable quality in the No. 1 suburb on the Gold Coast,” says agent Robert Graham of Ray White Surfers Paradise. “It’s also its first five-star green-rated building and already we’re getting a lot of inquiries from people in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and as far away as Perth.

“They’re all looking for something new and really stylish, and this is setting a new standard for the future.”

Yet while the building’s being launched on a high, the project wasn’t all plain sailing. Harvey Norman chief executive and Magic Millions co-owner Page bought the 882-square-metre piece of land, she says, “at the height of the market” for $15.5 million before the GFC sent prices into freefall, and then faced fierce objections to the plans from the local council.

There had originally been a three-storey height limit on the site, and around 800 formal objections were presented from local residents. As a result, it ended up taking eight long years to win approval, culminating in a battle in the Queensland Court of Appeal.

Even today, there are critics, including Main Beach Association president David Hutley who says M3565, named after its number on Main Beach Parade, has now set an unwelcome precedent for future development along the beachfront.  

“But I think the objections to our building were simply a bit of a reaction to all the bad development that had gone up previously,” says Kerridge, who’s designed waterfront homes previously in Sydney, at Fairy Bower in Manly, in Collaroy and harbourside in Castlecrag, as well as in Byron Bay at Broken Head.

“This isn’t a bad height; it’s comparatively low rise and everything is on a fairly human scale. You can look up and see the top floor from below, and from the apartments you can look down and still feel you’re part of the beach. We started the reports on the building nearly 10 years ago now.”

But while there may still be some local resentment, most dissipated as soon as the final building was unveiled, believes Page, who’s developed a number of other projects before, particularly as she likes to use them to road-test the products she sells through her stores with husband Gerry Harvey.

“For all the angst people had about it, now they are saying it’s beautiful too,” she says. “They’re asking, ‘What were we going on about?’

“I’m a Queenslander by birth and this is my home. I live at Main Beach as do my sisters, and I love it here; it has such a great feel. While this development is unlike anything we have ever seen on the Gold Coast before, I think it’s time.

“It’s absolutely beautiful and I think this is the next step for development going into the future. I don’t mind being the person who’s the trailblazer.”

Architect Michael Middleton endorses the building, saying it “offers an opportunity to establish a new benchmark for beachfront development that will enhance the overall neighbourhood. [It will also] potentially extend the impacts of design excellence to many other locations of similar attributes along the coastal strip.”

The building is extensively landscaped with a series of courtyards providing cross-ventilation, and has deep shaded balconies. The apartments are all open-plan with living, dining and kitchen areas all forming one large space.

The ground floor apartment, starting at $4.95 million, has three bedrooms and three bathrooms with an interior area of 325 square metres. The next four apartments all have four bedrooms and four bathrooms over 404 square metres, and are priced between $6.2 million and $7.85 million.

The two-level 61-square-metre penthouse at the top has an additional bathroom and an internal lift, with the master suite on the rooftop, together with a pool. Its price will be open to offers.

Although Page built the block ostensibly to give herself her dream apartment, she hasn’t yet made her choice. “I love the penthouse but I haven’t decided yet,” she says. “There’s a lot of interest in the building, so I’ll bide my time and see. But, really, I can’t wait to move in. Try and keep me away!”

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