Surf Farm, the major surf and lifestyle development planned for the Sunshine Coast, has taken another significant step forward after confirming an ongoing strategic partnership with Australia’s leading wave park developer and operator URBNSURF Partners.
Surf Farm director Chris Salmon said the partnership enables the project’s commercial plan to be tested and refined against real, live performance data from URBNSURF’s own parks which are located in Melbourne and Sydney.
“This is an important partnership to rigorously assess our commercial projections and operating assumptions against actual figures on how Australian and international tourists are using, booking and returning to wave park experiences in Melbourne and Sydney on a daily basis.
“Our team is working alongside URBNSURF to test every material assumption in the project’s commercial model, including demand and pricing to membership, events, seasonality and catchment.
“Because we are testing it against URBN’s real-world data, the largest wave pool operator in the world, we can give each assumption a confidence rating and a clear next step, so the project team, investors and the community alike can have confidence in the project’s feasibility,” Mr Salmon said.
URBNSURF’s Melbourne and Sydney parks have become two of the most in-demand leisure destinations in their respective cities, attracting surfers of all ages and abilities and proving there is a strong, sustainable market for world-class wave parks in Australian communities.
Mr Salmon said both parties continue to work together through its commercial process, reviewing investor materials, helping prepare for capital partner discussions, and joining stakeholder conversations both remotely and on the ground in order to bring the project closer to the finish line.
Surf Farm will be located on a 10-hectare site at Glass House Mountains on the Bruce Highway leading into the Sunshine Coast. Once built, the attraction will feature a Wavegarden Cove lagoon configured with 62 modules which is capable of delivering one of the widest ranges of programmable wave settings in the southern hemisphere, and creating a facility suited to everyone from first-time beginners to elite surfers.
Beyond the wave pool attraction, Surf Farm is planned to include food and beverage offerings, retail, community gathering spaces, events programming and spectator areas, positioned as a new year-round destination for the region while supporting local jobs, tourism and community life on the Sunshine Coast.
Mr Salmon said he expected preliminary earth works to commence on-site early next year.
