After months of careful negotiation, a high-profile commercial site on the Gold Coast’s most prestigious residential beachfront strip has been leased.

The premium site on Hedges Avenue in Mermaid Beach will be home to a new cafe venture, earmarked to open before the end of the year, run by a leading local hospitality operator.

The deal was achieved by Kollosche Commercial Leasing Manager Carl English, with the tenant signing a five-year lease at $10,000 a month, with two further five-year options.

The search for a new occupant has continued since March, when the previous tenant suddenly closed the doors to well-known coffee shop, Cafe On Hedges.

Carl says despite the heightened level of enquiry that followed, his priority was to find a tenant that was the right fit for the location.

“When we secured the listing there was a lot of conversation with the landlord about how we would approach the marketing,” Carl says.

“I could have leased it in the first week. I had offers from kebab stores, convenience stores, fish-and-chip shops … all sorts of business models that would have happily taken the space and paid a good rental price.

“But the owner feels a real responsibility to the local community, and we agreed that wasn’t what belonged in the space.

“We felt that it should be a local operator, who understood Mermaid Beach and was able to share a vision for how to make the space work.”

The site did come with some hurdles, Carl says. “It’s zoning restricts evening trade, effectively deterring anyone seeking to use the space for a restaurant or bar.

“I held discussions with council and town planners about changes to the zoning and what that might look like,” Carl says

“While they weren’t against it, the space is connected to a community title scheme, with 19 residential lots, so any changes would have required unanimous approval from members of the scheme’s body corporate.

“There were a lot of moving parts but having the support of the body corporate was key consideration.”

While further details about the new venture cannot be revealed just yet, Kollosche can disclose that the new tenant is a well-respected and established local operator, who has a proven track record in the hospitality industry.

A refit for the new-look coffee shop will soon be under way, with the tenant hoping to open doors to the cafe ahead of the busy summer holiday season.

“It will be a new brand and a new aesthetic, with a new name,” Carl says.

“The tenants have had a vision for this cafe for some time, with a clear concept of what they want it to be. They just needed to find the right space in which to do it.

“I’m pleased that, through a strategic approach to marketing and dedication to client service, that Kollosche could help to facilitate that, while also achieving an excellent result for the landlord.”