Lindeman Island, the one-time home of Club Med, has been listed for sale, providing investors an opportunity to create a new resort in the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef.
CBRE Hotels’ Wayne Bunz and Hayley Manvell have been exclusively appointed to market the asset, one of 24 Queensland islands offering resort approvals.
On offer is a perpetual leasehold and four long-term leases over 136-hectares of land, comprising the closed beachfront resort, golf course and air strip. The island also features 637 hectares of national park area with seven private beaches
The listing follows a string of island sales, which have returned five major islands back into the hands of Australian investors over the past 12 months. These include:
- Dunk Island to Annie Cannon-Brookes, wife of Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes
- Lizard Island to Tattarang
- Long Island to Oscars Hotels
- Hook Island to Meridian Australia
- Elysian Retreat Long Island to Shayne Smyth, founder of Perle Ventures and travel insurance group Cover-More.
Lindeman Island is located within the Whitsunday archipelago, approximately 15-kilometres from Hamilton Island. It can be accessed by boat – either via a 20-minute trip from Hamilton Island Airport or a 40-minute trip from Airlie Beach, with small charter aircraft and helicopters also able to land on the island’s airstrip.
Queensland was recently crowned the Nation’s Tourism Capital, with the Sunshine State outperforming the national average and all other states for Overnight Visitor Expenditure (OVE) growth. In March 2022, OVE was recorded at 45.2 percent or $896 million higher than in March 2019, with The Whitsundays one of the key beneficiaries of this demand.
“The Whitsunday Region has been one of the most resilient markets through the pandemic and was recently recognised as the world’s second most loved tourist destination in 2022 by the Tourism Sentiment Index, highlighting the region’s robust tourist market,” CBRE Hotels National Director Wayne Bunz said.
“Lindeman Island provides investors with the opportunity to redevelop the asset in line with other nearby successful luxury resorts, such as qualia Hamilton Island, to capitalise on strong domestic tourism demand and a resurgence in the international inbound market.”
CBRE Hotels Associate Director Hayley Manvell added, “The asset is essentially a blank canvas for an incoming investor, allowing them to follow the masterplan developed by the existing owner White Horse Group or undertake a smaller scale luxury redevelopment.”
The masterplan incorporates a variety of four to six-star accommodation offerings, with 325 suites villas, suites and apartment, an ecotourism education centre, restaurants, bars, beach club, night club, conference centre, arrival centre, retail shops, sport and recreation centre and a staff village.
The local representative of China-based firm White Horse, Michael Dawn said, “It is with regret that after ten years of ownership, White Horse has made the decision to divest Lindeman Island, despite having successfully completed the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) component of the redevelopment. White Horse hopes that the new owner continues with its vision to redevelop this once great island resort and restore it to its former glory.”
The International Expression of Interest campaign closes 25th August 2022 (unless sold prior).
