An eighth-generation farmer who is the owner of Maroochydore's last remaining undeveloped private land, is putting most of his prime Sunshine Coast property up for sale.
Peter Wise, a 81-year-old farmer who lives in the booming holiday hotspot, has decided that now is the time to sell 35 hectares bordering Wises Road and the Sunshine Motorway, where he runs cattle next to suburbia.
The Wise family has been farming on the Sunshine Coast since 1901. Frederick Wise's British-born grandfather migrated to Australia chasing gold, before buying 'Palmyra' on Buderim for 800.
Between 1965 and 1968, Wise and his brother David purchased an adjoining 121 ha of farmland in Maroochydore.
Mr Wise expected that the sale would proceed much faster than the 21 years it took to agree on his last large property exchange.
A section of the Sunshine Motorway, Maroochy Boulevard, the Sunshine Cove canal estate and the kilometre-long Harvey Norman Homemaker centre complex have all been built on land where tourists used to pick their own fruit in the Wise family's orchards up until 2002.
Wise has not shied away from controversy, but he has been out of the spotlight with authorities and neighbours who tried to encroach on his land. He fought for his rights in the Supreme Court.
The latest sale will be on his own terms, with no real estate agents involved. A 55-sided information booklet of sale was prepared before he agreed to allow expressions of interest from potential buyers.
The sale of Wises Farm will be under my version of a tender system where the cash offer of a potential purchaser is to include their best vision to redevelop the unique site, Mr Wise said.
A lapsed development plan has been updated and resubmitted to ensure a premium price.
In 2012, the state's Planning and Environment Court gave preliminary approval for a development on the farmland, including residential housing, commercial and community uses, along with open space and environmental management areas.
The outdated documents lapsed, and on Wednesday Mr Wise's town planners lodged a modified development application with the Sunshine Coast Regional Council.
It allows for seven precincts, including mid-density residential housing, low-density residential housing, a mixed-use precinct, a local centre precinct, and an environmental management precinct.
Between 500 700 homes could be built, and his consultants, Innovative Planning Solutions, have also sought approval for a service station.
There are two motorway underpasses that allow traffic access to the Sunshine Cove estate.
Wise said the code-assessable approval process would give developers time to put in their offers.
He still hopes that a Christian university will be part of his land's future, but he also understands that the new owner will make their own development decisions.
With the current housing crisis on the Sunshine Coast, the Real Estate Institute of Queensland chief executive Antonia Mercorella said she expected a very significant backlash if the council didn't move quickly to approve the application. The simple house blocks in Maroochydore sold for more than a million dollars in the past year, but Mr Wise was not speculating about the potential price of his extensive property.
The last time newsreader Rob Brough spoke about it on Channel Seven in the Sunshine Coast, he tongue-in cheek made a bushman's valuation that it would be worth $50 million.
Mr Wise, a multi-millionaire, has no plans to give up farming.
He still owns the historic Palmyra homestead on Buderim and will keep 4 hectares of his Maroochydore land bordering the motorway where he grows and sells figs and cultivates coffee trees.