Gold Coast firm undertakes NSW coast subdivision
New Estate for Ballina
by Tracey McBean - Business Property Editor
Gold Coast Bulletin - 21st March 2008
A Gold Coast company has broken ground on a $60 million residential subdivision at Ballina.
Rayshield, linked to Glenzeil founders Ken Jones and Geoff Rose, will develop the 236-lot estate, Ferngrove Ballina, on a 24ha site at the northern entrance to the coastal NSW town.
The company acquired the former farming parcel for $13.5 million.
Rayshield joins a list of Queensland firms with major commercial, mixed-use and residential projects planned for the Ballina area that includes Macpro, Samtay and Petrac.
Under the NSW Government’s Far North Coast Regional Strategy, Ballina will become the area’s third major regional centre next to Tweed Heads and Lismore in coming years.
The Far North Coast region, which stretches from Evans Heads to the Queensland border, is forecast to gain a further 60,000 people and an extra 51,000 homes by 2031.
Mr Jones said Ballina was on Rayshield’s radar because of its seachange credentials, road upgrades and steady demand for homes.
“We see Ballina as the Maroochydore of the Far North Coast,” he said.
“It has a substance to it with its cinemas, beaches, schools, walking tracks and golf course.
“It is flat and a lot of retirees like it because it is easy on the foot and there are good medical facilities.”
Mr Jones said he expected Ballina’s popularity with tourists and daytrippers to increase with the opening of the Tugun Bypass this year.
“People will feel Ballina is close, and a comfortable ride,” he said.
“Also, there will be no traffic lights between Brisbane and Ballina.”
Ballina also has a bypass project under way – a 12km stretch of road that will divert through-traffic away from the town centre.
Mr Jones said Ferngrove Ballina was aimed mainly at second-home and third-home buyers and would have a design guidelines covenant.
He said development approval for the project was pending and Rayshield had the green light to prepare the site.
Registration of the housing lots was expected by early 2009.
Mr Jones said 75 per cent of the 45 lots in stage one had sold for about $8 million since Christmas with home-builders, including Phil Anstey, Coral Homes, Metricon, GJ Gardiner and Clarendon, among the buyers.
Marketing agent Graeme Hellyar, of Ray White Ballina, said the project would meet pent-up demand for residential land close to the town centre.
Ferngrove is to be developed in five stages over three years.
Lots will range from 400sqm to 800sqm and will house conventional, duplex and villa homes.
Playing fields and a childcare centre will be incorporated into the estate, whose site is close to Ballina’s major shopping centres and Bunnings and Aldi stores.
Rayshield is also associated with Coast businessmen Stephen O’Keefe and John Fillmore.
Mr Jones and Mr Rose, both former Raptis executives, formed Glenzeil in 1990 and sold it in 2005 to focus on development.
They now head the Rose Jones Group which last year developed The Point @ Varsity office building, in which the company is based.