An indoor arena has been green-lit for Southport, with a shortlist of potential developers submitted to Gold Coast City Council.
The council planned to build the 12,000-plus capacity arena – slated as a venue for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games – through a public-private partnership.
Land has been made available by the council at Carey Park, near the Australia Fair shopping centre and across the water from Sea World.
Invest Gold Coast, the council’s economic development and investment attraction agency, presented its board-endorsed shortlist to the council on Tuesday, following a process that sought expressions of interest from the private sector.
EOIs were sought to design, build, finance, operate and maintain what would be the city’s largest indoor entertainment and sports venue.
A council spokeswoman said respondents were assessed on design vision, strong public value, capacity, capability, and Olympic readiness.
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said the council’s support of the arena followed a rigorous assessment of the legacy project’s EOI responses.
“It was important to ensure the EOI responses withstood the test for significant city investment and enduring public value,” he said.
“We will now inform all the respondents of the outcome and will be able to share more details in the coming weeks.”
Launching the EOI last year, Invest Gold Coast chairman Will Hodgman said the process was very much market-led.
“We want to give investors the confidence and delivery certainty they need to get behind this project,” he said.
“We are not prescribing the scope or terms; rather, we’re inviting the international market to help shape this project with world-class expertise and ideas.
“What we are making clear today is that this opportunity is real, it is coming, and the Gold Coast market is ripe for investment.”
Hodgman said demand for the venue was demonstrated by an increasingly youthful population on the traditionally retiree-friendly Gold Coast, with the city’s under-20 population forecast to grow to 38 per cent by 2041.
While Tate has promoted the arena as a Brisbane 2032 venue, neither he nor the council has publicly nominated which Olympic sports it would host.
If completed, the Gold Coast Arena would join other expected venues in the city as an Olympic host – the Gold Coast Hockey Centre, a temporary beach volleyball stadium at Broadbeach, and the triathlon along the city’s famous waterfront.
Like the planned Gabba Arena at Woolloongabba, the Gold Coast Arena would be delivered by the private sector and not form part of the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority’s delivery responsibility.
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