Soul is a tall residential tower and hotel on the Esplanade, close to Cavill Avenue in

Surfers Paradise Surfing is a list of surface water sports, surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in Glossary of surfing, tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wind wave, wave of water, whic ...

on the

Gold Coast, Queensland The Gold Coast, also known by its initials, GC, is a coastal city and region in the state of Queensland, Australia, located approximately south-southeast of the centre of the list of Australian capital cities, state capital, Brisbane. It is ...

, Australia. it is the 3rd tallest building on the Gold Coast behind

Ocean The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian, Southern Ocean ...

which topped out in late 2021 but above Circle at Cavil. The Gold Coast City Council approved the building in October 2004 and finished construction in 2012, along with the next stage of the Gold Coast renovation project. It was developed by Juniper Group, and constructed by

Grocon Grocon is an Australian property development, property developer, construction, contractor and Investment management, funds management company that is privately owned by the Bruno Grollo, Grollo family. Founded in Melbourne in 1948, it expanded ...

at a cost of A$850 million.

History

The Raptis Plaza previously occupied the site which was a shopping centre. By early April 2010 construction of the core structure had reached level 40. By July 2010 the tower had reached half the structure's total height. On the 14 March 2011, workers left the site in protest at the sacking of 11 Australian tilers while Korean workers were allowed to stay. Owners of units from level 39 and below were able to move into their properties before the building was complete. Some shops had opened in the retail section in mid 2010.

Design

The tower was designed by the local architectural company DBI Design PL.The design includes 288 units on 77 floors and 5,700 m² of retail space. An average square metre cost of A$16,490, made Soul the highest priced units on the Gold Coast at the time.

Units

Soul's penthouse, which spans four levels, was Australia's highest-selling apartment at A$16.75 million. Beneath the penthouse are three sub-penthouses each occupying a whole floor. Sales were strong between 2006 and 2008, however the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

curtailed purchases. All units in the building were sold for more than $1 million each. Buyers from China were specifically targeted after strong sales from Chinese visitors were recorded early in 2010. Overall most purchases were made from people living in the

South East Queensland South East Queensland (SEQ) is a Bioregion, bio-geographical, Megalopolis, metropolitan and Statistics, statistical Regions of Queensland, region of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of ...

region. In early 2009 sales of units in Soul had slowed with just over 100 units still for sale. By July 2010, three-quarters of the units had been sold.

Receivership

The development was placed into receivership in October 2012. At the time at least 88 units in the building remained unsold. Earlier, Grocon had started legal proceedings against Juniper Group over alleged outstanding payments for construction.

Management

From November 2013, Mantra Group took over the management rights of Soul from the receivers & manager, PwC. It is now known as Peppers Soul, part of the Accor Group.

References

External links

Official Soul website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soul (Building) Skyscrapers on the Gold Coast, Queensland Residential buildings completed in 2012 Residential skyscrapers in Australia Surfers Paradise, Queensland 2012 establishments in Australia Retail buildings in Queensland Neomodern architecture in Australia