A 40-year cafe just became a franchise

Rafters traded 40 years. Its replacement costs $150,000 to buy.

Pete and Simone Rafter were one of Kawana Shoppingworld's original tenants. The site went to a national franchise, and that franchise publishes its numbers.

The opportunity

Rafters ran for more than 40 years at Kawana Shoppingworld, Buddina. It has been taken over by Degani, the brand's 47th store nationally and 9th in Queensland, opening this month under a franchisee named Ren, whose family heritage is Belgian waffles. Fit-out includes a gelato bar and a cold-brew coffee tap. Degani CEO Bruce Scott on site selection: "We're very particular about getting the right location with the right franchisee."

The reason this is the lead and not a shop-opening note: Degani publishes tiered entry costs, so for once you can price a Coast cafe against a real number instead of a rumour. A 40-year independent was replaced by a system with five weeks of training and a documented fit-out spec. That is the whole story of what is happening to Coast retail, with a dollar figure attached.

What it costs to enter: Degani's published tiers

• From $125,000: 250 sqm+ site with 20+ cars/hour parking. The cheapest entry, and the format that suits a highway or arterial site rather than a mall.
• From $150,000: 50–100 sqm, seating to 60. The Kawana-style in-centre footprint.
• From $250,000: 120–200 sqm, seating to 130.
• From $350,000: 200 sqm+, seating 130+.
• Ongoing: 5% royalty + 2% marketing on turnover, plus a five-week training program at the corporate office before you trade.

The play

• The $125,000 drive-through-style tier is the anomaly worth a phone call: it is the lowest entry of the four and needs parking, not frontage. The Coast has arterial sites with parking and no coffee. Ask Degani franchising directly which Coast postcodes are unallocated.
• Use the tiers as a benchmark even if you never franchise. If your independent cafe plan cannot beat $150,000 for 60 seats, your plan is the problem, not the market.
• Model 7% off the top before you compare. A $700,000-turnover site pays roughly $49,000 a year in royalty and marketing: the price of the system, and the number independents forget to credit themselves for.
• Walk Kawana Shoppingworld in the first fortnight of trade and count the queue at open, 10am and 2pm. A brand-new franchise in a 40-year site is the cleanest natural experiment you will get on Coast cafe demand.
• Talk to Pete and Simone Rafter if you can reach them. Forty years of trading data on that exact catchment is worth more than any feasibility study you can buy.

The catch

Published "from" prices are floors, not quotes. Mall fit-outs routinely land above them, and none of these figures include working capital, stock, or the bond a centre like Kawana will want. The 5% + 2% is charged on turnover, not profit, so it bites hardest in a bad quarter. And the honest reading of Rafters' exit is that a 40-year independent still lost the site: longevity did not protect them, and it will not protect you.

A marina venue is choosing its suppliers right now

Pier 33 is now Marina Mooloolaba. Full opening is 1 October, and the window to pitch it is now.

The opportunity

The former Pier 33 at Mooloolaba Marina reopens as Marina Mooloolaba under co-owner Craig Dangar, with a soft restaurant opening already run and full opening set for 1 October. Kitchen and bar upgrades are done. Still to come: a lift for upstairs access (quoted, not installed), a noise-proofing fence upstairs, and a separate live music space. Existing staff were retained and previously confirmed weddings are being honoured.

The play

A venue between soft and full opening has not locked its suppliers, its music roster, or its event calendar. Pitch now, in this order: produce and beverage supply, then the live music room, then wedding and function referral. Dangar's own framing is that the team is "heavily invested in the success of the venue," which means decisions are being made by people who are already there, not a head office. Musicians and small production crews: the separate live music space is unbuilt, which is the rarest possible moment to get on a roster.

The catch

The lift is quoted, not ordered, and the noise fence is still a plan. Both are the kind of item that slips a full opening past 1 October. Do not build a season around that date. And a retained team means retained supplier relationships: you are displacing someone, not filling a gap.

Six national brands took a 150,000-car site. No locals.

A $24 million service centre opened fully pre-leased, and not one Coast operator got a look in.

The opportunity

A $24 million service centre opened 7 July beside the Bruce Highway near the Johnston Road intersection, about 35km south of Maroochydore, owned by Dexus Convenience Retail with Queensland partner De Luca Corporation. Tenants: Shell, OTR, Hungry Jack's, McDonald's, KFC and Guzman y Gomez. Rooftop solar, rainwater harvesting and grey-water reuse. Over 150,000 motorists pass daily. It opened fully pre-leased.

The play

Read the tenant list again: six operators, zero local. This is the clearest available picture of how highway retail gets allocated on the Coast: pre-leased to national covenants long before the doors open, because a REIT underwrites against brand covenant strength, not local trading history. If you want a highway node, you cannot arrive at opening. Track Dexus Convenience Retail's announcements and the DA lodgements for the next centre, and go in with a landlord-grade proposal (audited figures, multi-site capability, a personal guarantee), or as a sub-tenant inside one of those six.

The catch

Be honest about whether this is winnable. A single-site local operator is not the customer a convenience REIT is shopping for, and 150,000 cars a day is exactly why. The realistic play here is franchising into one of those six brands, not competing with them for the pad.

A service station just got lodged at Buderim

116 King St, DA reference 3528236, lodged 29 July. That is the entire public record right now.

The opportunity

A development application for a Service Station at 116 King St, Buderim was lodged with Sunshine Coast Council on 29 July, reference 3528236. That is it. That is the entire public record right now. Which is exactly why it is in this edition: you are reading it at the earliest moment it is knowable.

The play

Pull the full application from Sunshine Coast Council's development register using the reference and read the traffic report: a service station application has to model vehicle movements, and that model is a free forecast of a corner's future foot traffic. If the numbers are strong, the adjacent tenancies are the play, not the station: coffee, quick food, car wash, trailer hire. Note the submission window while the application is open; a lodged DA is the cheapest moment to influence conditions or to be first to the neighbouring landlord.

The catch

Lodged is not approved, and service station applications in established residential streets draw objections and often get refused or heavily conditioned. Treat this as a lead indicator with a real chance of going nowhere. Do not sign anything on the strength of a DA number.

Bulcock St has civil works on the drawing board

45–47 Bombala Tce and 1–9 Bulcock St, Caloundra: not the 139 Bulcock St site from Edition 01.

The opportunity

A streetlighting reticulation plan and civil works design was lodged for 45–47 Bombala Terrace and 1–9 Bulcock Street, Caloundra, reference 3529244. Civil works design is the unglamorous paperwork that precedes actual construction, and it is a real signal that something is moving at the Bombala Terrace end of Bulcock Street.

The play

If you trade at that end of Bulcock Street, the useful move is defensive and immediate: ask your landlord now about a rent abatement clause tied to construction disruption, before hoarding goes up and before you have no leverage. If you are looking to enter Caloundra, civil works design is the window where nearby rents have not yet repriced.

The catch, and a correction to Edition 01

This is not the 139 Bulcock St Suncourt Motel site we covered last edition. Different address, different end of the street, no connection established between them. The 170-household approval at 139 still has no public construction start date. We are flagging this because it is on the same street, not because it resolves the earlier question.

The university just hired someone whose job is to take your call

UniSC's first Director of Strategic Partnerships has an empty calendar and a mandate to fill it.

The opportunity

Paul Martins has been appointed the University of the Sunshine Coast's first Director of Strategic Partnerships, arriving from Chief Economic Development Officer at City of Moreton Bay. His portfolio covers government relations, industry engagement, innovation programs and research commercialisation, and UniSC's Innovation Centre and accelerator programs are being reshaped under it. In the background: Advanced Queensland funding for Future Skills Labs in robotics, drones, digital health, clean technologies and advanced manufacturing, an international submarine cable landing at Maroochydore, and planned quantum computing capability at the Moreton Bay campus. Martins: "Those initiatives never get off the ground in isolation. As the saying goes, it takes a village."

The play

An inaugural role is the one moment a senior person has an empty calendar and a mandate to fill it. Approach Martins with a specific proposition, not a coffee: name which Future Skills Lab domain you touch and what you would bring to it. If you are in robotics, drones, digital health, clean tech or advanced manufacturing, you are inside the funded categories already. If you are in logistics, data or trades training, the submarine cable landing at Maroochydore is the thread to pull.

The catch

There is no published application process, no grant portal and no deadline attached to any of this yet. This is relationship-stage, not funding-stage. Treat it as a twelve-month positioning play, and be sceptical of anyone selling you a UniSC partnership as a near-term revenue line.