First Appeared in The Urban Developer 4^th September 2025

Family-run McGovern Developments is poised to move ahead on its biggest project to date, a $100-million land lease community at Gympie.

The family picked up a vacant 7.3ha site in 2021 for $1.87 million and filed its 158-home plans with the Gympie Regional Council after the property settled.

The council approved the scheme in 2023.

It is the second retirement community for the Sunshine Coast and Fraser Coast-based developers headed by family patriarch and former publican Bernie McGovern. 

Previously the family built and ran the Rivershore Resort, a holiday park on the banks of the Maroochy River near Maroochydore, which was sold to Ingenia Communities in 2019.

Bernie McGovern, who owned pubs at Maryborough and Roma, and motels at Chinchilla, entered the over-50s community property sector when he bought Buderim Gardens on the Sunshine Coast in 2000 and flipped it.

The Gympie plans by Taylor’d Distinction building designers include a $10-million clubhouse and wellness centre with a bar, gym, cafe, pools, bowling green and golf simulator.

The entrance to the Tozer Street land lease development, dubbed Horizon Living, would be off Sorrel Street.

There would be three design choices for homes within the over-50s community.

McGovern said they were back in development mode with the plans for the site near Gympie’s central business district.

“After Rivershore we took a breath, then really homed in on the over-50s space as the next step,” McGovern said. 

“It’s our aim to be not just the best over-50s community in Gympie, but the best in the state.”

The Queensland developer joins a growing number of developers moving into the land lease space as it evolves to attract strong capital investment.

Big names in the $12-billion growth sector include GemLife, Stockland, Ingenia, GreenFort Capital and Oliver Hume.