Media Release

June 1, 2010

Pacifica Seafood anchors into M1 Business Precinct at Robina

CBDRobina's M1 Business Precinct is to host a $7 million cutting-edge wholesale seafood facility designed to meet the needs of the Gold Coast region.

The two-storey distribution centre will have about 2000 square metres of floorspace and is under construction on a 2430 square metre landholding on Scottsdale Drive.

The centre is being developed by Comi Investments, associated with Brisbane couple Carmelo and Pauline Comi who have many years' experience in the seafood industry.

It will house their business, Pacifica Trading, which will service hotels, resorts, restaurants, aged-care facilities and seafood outlets and also will distribute regional produce to other centres.    

Comi Investments acquired the land from Robina Projects Australia, developer of the 4.2ha M1 Business Precinct, which sits beside the Pacific Motorway and is accessed from Scottsdale Drive.

Sites in the 12-lot business park are available only to owner-occupiers wanting to develop purpose-designed facilities.

Construction firm SpaceFrame began work on the centre in April and the tilt-slab building is due for completion in early September.

It will feature 1000 square metres of freezer space, a packing room and two chiller rooms.

Also included is a 300 square metre administration space, and a 100 square metre retail outlet to cater for area residents and the CBDRobina workforce.

Seafood supplies will be sourced from throughout Australia and will include fresh and  frozen product.

 The facility will operate six days a week.

Mr Comi said the M1 Business Precinct was the standout choice for the centre due to its strategic central-city location and ease of access to the Pacific Motorway and other Gold Coast commercial and residential precincts.

"The M1 Business Precinct offered the site area we needed in the Gold Coast's premier expanding business hub," he said.

Mr Comi said Pacifica Trading aimed to reduce the need for the Gold Coast and nearby communities to source produce through Brisbane wholesalers.

``In particular, our goal is to become the primary supplier of seafood to the public and the hospitality trade," he said.

Mr Comi said the couple had chosen the Gold Coast for the venture because it was a major expanding centre within southeast Queensland, Australia's premier population-growth hotspot.

``The Gold Coast continues to attract large numbers of new residents, businesses and tourists and the CBDRobina location enables Pacifica Trading to also service expanding communities inland and across the border in NSW,'' he said.

RPA General Manager Hylton Slater said Pacifica Trading planned to make a significant contribution to the Gold Coast and he was delighted its principals had chosen CBDRobina as the site for the facility.

``Comi Investments is making a commitment to the future of the Gold Coast region and it speaks volumes for the M1 Business Precinct that it has been chosen as the location for Pacifica Trading," he said.

``Business people wanting to develop purpose-designed premises recognise the outstanding strategic significance of the precinct's location.

``Yet that is not the only boon the precinct offers; buyers also benefit from its unique town-planning advantages.

``Sites are available with zonings for a broad range of uses and a fast-track planning system is in place, with buildings subject to a brief 40-day approval  process.

``Buyers also benefit from favourable development charges, in particular headworks charges.''

Mr Slater said location benefits included the fact that about 45,000 people lived within a five-minute drive of Robina, 33 per cent of city residents were just 10 minutes away, and 79 per cent could reach it within 30 minutes.

The precinct houses the Robina-Reedy Creek Police Station; the Australian Industry Trade College, a federal trade-skills training institution now under construction; and vehicles dealership East Coast Commercials.

It also has attracted two child-care centres whose operator is establishing a child-care staff-training facility, Study Solutions.

Five sites, ranging from 3043 square metres to 5201 square metres, remain available at the precinct and are being marketed by Marcus Weld, of Robina Marketing Australia.

Download article as it appeared in Gold Coast Bulletin