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Favoured Queensland resort of Kerry Packer goes on sale for a ‘special, knockdown COVID-19 price’ of $60 million in CASH – but it does come with its own airport, golf course and polo fields
- Estate agent Peter Huang picked up the 1980s resort from receivers in 2014
- Spent more than $10 million on renovations to make it operational again
- Now looking to sell for a special COVID-19 price of $60 million
- The resort includes a private airstrip, golf course and mountain bike course
A huge Queensland resort – once favoured as a Queensland getaway by mogul Kerry Packer – is up for sale at a ‘limited time COVID-19 special price’ of $60 million.
Real estate agent Peter Huang is the owner of the Ramada Resort Kooralbyn Valley, a 3700-acre masterplanned community in the Gold Coast Hinterland, with its own airstrip, golf course and polo fields.
Huang first tried to sell the property in 2017 but is now offering a COVID-19 discount on the $104 million retail price for a ‘cash unconditional term’.
The main resort includes 102 rooms and as well as a restaurant and wedding centre
‘Limited time Covid Special around $60m cash…’ wrote Huang in the listing for the property.
‘It’s unlikely you will get a loan from any banks now and you should not borrow, like Harry Trigubuff (sic), therefore completely eliminate your risk,’ he continued.
The main 102-room resort was built in the 1980s by the Japanese Towa group on land owned by Sydney entrepreneurs Sir Peter Abeles and Arthur George.
The more exclusive 30-room Packer Lodge was built later and became a regular Queensland bolthole of the man it was named after, who visited the resort to utilise its two championship polo fields.
Kerry Packer often visited the Kooralbyn resort because of its championship polo fields
The owner believes the property is ideal for the development of a retirement village
Peter Huang poured more than $10 million into the resort to restore operations in 2016
The property also comprises a 230-seat restaurant, a convention/wedding centre, a private airport which can also be used for ‘drag racing’, a mountain bike course, a vineyard, an international school and a caravan park.
Mysteriously, for the Gold Coast, it also includes a ‘half-finished snow ski lodge to be converted to eco-lodge or other uses’.
The 18-hole championship golf course was the breeding ground for future international champions, Australians Jason Day and Adam Scott.
Olympic champion Cathy Freeman also attended the International School and trained at the property in the late 1980s.
‘I’m not desperate but I’m motivated and keen to sell,’ Huang told Daily Mail Australia. ‘I’m a real estate agent and haven’t run a resort before. It would suit someone with a hospitality background and who has good connections to the local tourism market.’
The championship golf course – and the ‘roos – are some of the resort’s key attractions
A map marked to show of the resort’s attractions, including the incomplete ‘snow ski lodge’
‘[There is] potential to acquire the neighbouring local shopping centre, local service station and airport hanger for an estimated $3.5m, so you will control the whole Kooralbyn CBD for far better future master planning of the whole area,’ said Huang.
‘I can create a deal if someone is interested in buying the assets around the resort as well,’ he told Daily Mail.
Huang acquired the property from receivers for $6.5 million in 2014 after it had been closed for eight years. He spent more than $10 million before reopening it in 2016, styling the resort as a ‘health and fitness eco-resort’.
The agent claimed he is relisting the resort after two cash offers had fallen through.
‘One still sitting on the buyer’s solicitor’s table for too long waiting for another director to sign, and another buyer has been shown the door after he tried to re-negotiate the mutually agreed price using the COVID as an excuse,’ wrote Huang.
Olympic champion Cathy Freeman called Kooralbyn home in the late 1980s
Champion Australian golfer Jason Day cut his teeth on the Kooralbyn resort course
The property can also be subdivided, with a previous development application for a retirement village housing 1000 people having lapsed.
‘It would be a perfect paradise for people over 50 looking to retire,’ said Huang. ‘Free from COVID, free from traffic, playing golf every day…’
Huang said he had received ‘lots of offers’ but was realistic about the price given the continued absence of international tourists as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
