INVEST - Gold Coast Health & Knowledge Precinct

Filed Under: BUSINESS, HEALTH, INVEST, LIVE, PROJECTS

Work commences on premium GCHKP development RDX

(L-R) Debbie McNamara, General Manager EDQ, Craig Mitchell President Northwest Healthcare Properties REIT, Hon Stirling Hinchcliffe, Queensland Minister for Tourism, Innovation and Sport, Dr Hal Rice, Tim Baker, CEO City of Gold Coast

Work has commenced on RDX Lumina, a placemaking Gold Coast Health and Knowledge development by Northwest Healthcare Properties, Australia’s largest healthcare real estate owner.

The Hon. Stirling Hinchliffe, Minister for Tourism, Innovation and Sport yesterday turned sod on the $154m project at a ceremony on the RDX site in the heart of the Precinct’s Lumina commercial district, alongside Northwest President and Regional CEO Craig Mitchell.

RDX is a premium eight-level health and innovation facility fitted for research, biotech, clinical and education functions.

At the ceremony, Mr Hinchcliffe said he expects life sciences work done under RDX’s roof will produce ”innovations that will deliver to the world”.

“We’ll see [RDX] making a massive difference to the way this Precinct delivers on its promise to be a real world-leading cutting edge health and knowledge precinct,” he says.

Northwest President and Regional CEO Craig Mitchell says the building’s position in the heart of GCHKP will create significant collaboration opportunities for RDX tenants.

“By creating a world-class facility to attract the best people in the industry and encourage further investment in research, development and training, we hope to make a substantial commitment to the broader healthcare industry into the future, in Queensland and beyond.” 

“The GCHKP location represents an added opportunity to collaborate with Griffith University researchers, other clinicians and industry partners.”

Mr Mitchell says RDX will be used for cutting edge life sciences work such as neuroendovascular radiology, interventional cardiology innovation and training, rehabilitation inpatient and outpatient clinical services, human clinical trials, research and virtual care via robotic technologies.

“It’s very important to build the ecosystem where you’ve got the private sector, the public sector, PhD students and researchers—an ecosystem looking at how you take research all the way through to the patient, the whole journey from the lab to bed.”

After the sod turning, the official party attended the Precinct’s new Neutex Image-Guided Surgical Training and Technologies Centre for a tour conducted by co-founder Dr Hal Rice.

Neutex, a committed tenant of RDX, is working until construction is complete from commercial Precinct space provided by Northwest to deliver world-leading training to specialists from across the Asia Pacific using the latest Philips Image-guided therapy system and technologies.

The 6-Star Green Star RDX is designed as an all-electric, carbon-neutral building and due for completion mid-2025.

With Evans Long’s $80m eight-storey development Proxima due for completion 2024, RDX is part of a construction boom in the GCHKP, driven by nearly $250m of private investment.

Filed Under: BUSINESS, INVEST Tagged With: ADaPT, Business Events, Destination Gold Coast

GCHKP stars as Gold Coast Business Events attract eyes of the world

Sheriff Karamat, President and CEO of the Professional Convention Management Association (second from left), visits ADaPT

Having launched its revitalised business events brand ‘Imagination Capital of Australia’ last year, Destination Gold Coast (DGC) has rebooted its Ambassadors program and tapped Precinct stars Dr Hal Rice and Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM as two of the first city ambassadors to sell the Gold Coast as a business events city on the world stage.

And in a series of promotional partnerships between the Precinct and DGC, exciting medical device and additive manufacturing projects by Griffith University’s Advanced Design and Prototyping Technologies Institute (ADaPT) were showcased at the business events industry’s peak conference. GCHKP also hosted a visit from the global President and CEO of the Professional Convention Management Association Sheriff Karamat, including a tour of ADaPT.

Business events are big business for the Gold Coast, injecting $570m into the city’s economy pre-Covid. The benefits of staging events goes beyond tourism and hospitality and extends to profiling the Gold Coast’s capabilities and offerings for talent and investment attraction.

The Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct benefits from the investment focus that conferences bring to the city and, according to Destination Gold Coast’s Head of Business Events Selina Sinclair, is a key catalyst for attracting business events thanks to our talent and world-leading capabilities.

“With 50 percent of meetings globally in the medical field, like-minded professionals are provided a platform to come together to exchange knowledge, discuss and debate new ideas and forthcoming technologies,” Ms Sinclair says.

“At the heart of the Gold Coast’s advancement is a thriving innovation economy driven by our hospitals, three distinguished universities, innovative startups and the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct.

“Beyond the direct economic contribution these business events inject into the Gold Coast economy, they also lead to new partnerships and attract talent to our hospitals, universities and research institutes.”

Dr Hal Rice (left) with Mayor Tom Tate and Destination Gold Coast representatives

Dr Rice and Selina Sinclair at the Medtronic Neuorexchange conference

The Precinct is also playing a key role in the relaunch of the BE Connected Gold Coast Ambassador Program to attract business events to the city, with Queensland Australian of the Year 2021, Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM, and Gold Coast Australian of the Year 2022, Dr Hal Rice, among the first chosen for the revamped program, supported by Mayor Tom Tate as patron.

“Dr Hal Rice, the Gold Coast’s Australian of the Year 2022, renowned stroke specialist and one of the founding ambassadors from the original program, is a great example of partnering with Destination Gold Coast to not only bring events to our city but through his work put the Gold Coast on the world medical stage,” Ms Sinclair says.

“Dr Rice has continued to bring international medical conferences to the Gold Coast, generating millions of dollars in economic benefit for the city and is now, through both public and private sector investment, in the final stages of building a world-class training centre for image-guided surgeries right here at the Gold Coast’s $1bn Health and Knowledge Precinct.”

Business events marketing has also taken Precinct expertise to the industry’s peak annual conference, Asia Pacific Incentives and Meeting Events (AIMe) as part of a showcase of all that the Gold Coast has to offer conference organisers.

At the Melbourne event, a selection of custom 3D-printed items (including replica brain aneurysm training models, lightweight small satellite prototypes and even a 3D-printed metal skull of an extinct Australian animal) were displayed to highlight the broad design and prototyping capability at ADaPT.

Following the conference, global conference industry leader Sheriff Karamat, President and CEO of the Professional Convention Management Association, visited the Gold Coast for a first-hand look at the Precinct’s additive manufacturing capabilities and other opportunities.

Precinct showcase alongside Swell sculptures

3D printed bone model and cutting guide on display

Destination Gold Coast has secured 146 events worth almost $200m in the events pipeline between now and 2030, with momentum building as the city’s reputation for business events grows.

Filed Under: BUSINESS, INVEST Tagged With: Dubai, Dubai Academic Health Corporation, Dubai Futures Foundation, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences

Precinct set to partner with Dubai

I hope you all have had a great start to 2023.

I wanted to provide our Gold Coast Health & Knowledge Precinct network with an insight into the business development work undertaken by the Precinct Office, in conjunction with our key partners.

Specifically, this article is focused on my recent visit to Dubai.

By way of background, the Gold Coast and Dubai have held a Sister City relationship for the past 22 years. People from Dubai love visiting the Gold Coast. During their summer months, the Gold Coast is a highly popular destination for people from the Middle East. Whilst I was in Dubai, many people knew of the Gold Coast and told me of their great family holidays to our city. It’s these relationships that provide a foundation for the Gold Coast and Dubai to progress new business relationships.

Dubai is fast becoming a global city powerhouse, with their vision to make Dubai one of the world’s foremost future cities. They are investing significantly in infrastructure, energy, transportation, ICT, education, security and health. They are creating partnerships globally and bringing some of the most highly qualified experts to work in Dubai. Through the Sister City relationship, Dubai can connect the Gold Coast into a global network of innovation.

My visit to Dubai was specifically to follow on from Mayor Tom Tate and City of Gold Coast CEO Tim Baker’s visit in November 2022. During their visit, health was identified as a key priority for Dubai.

Therefore, I travelled to Dubai and pitched five of the Gold Coast’s leading health technologies to the Dubai Futures Foundation, Dubai Academic Health Corporation and the Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences. These projects included:

Artificial intelligence in healthcare
Image guided and robotic treatment for stroke and aneurysm
Drugs, vaccines and diagnostics
Advanced rehabilitation with a focus on spinal injury
Orthopedic surgery techniques.

BioSpine is a key technology for partnership opportunities in Dubai

Post my visit, I am now in regular contact with the stakeholders I met with and in the process of connecting and facilitating our local Gold Coast experts to meet with associated Dubai stakeholders. It is our intent that by introducing these Gold Coast capabilities to Dubai, that new partnerships and investment can be facilitated, to fast-track these technologies for the benefit of Gold Coast, Dubai and beyond.

These efforts in the health sector, if progressed successfully will build further opportunities in the other key priority sectors for Dubai identified above.”

This visit could not have been undertaken without the support of Trade and Investment Queensland’s Geoffrey Schuhkraft. His relationships and commitment to our city is exceptional.

I hope this piece gives you an insight into the work done by the Precinct Office in promoting our leading Gold Coast technologies and showcasing our talent internationally.

Best,

Craig