Profile: Ricki Charles Shelley

Rick, as we all know him, moved to Mackay over 30 years ago and commenced work as a plant operator at Newland Mines which was then run by Mount Isa Mines. After several years at Newlands, Rick decided to get a home built in Mackay and rather than engaging a contractor he decided to build the house as an ownerbuilder.

From that one house, Rick has developed a diverse and large company. Initially, Rick concentrated his efforts into growing his company Residential Developments (North Qld) into one of the largest project building companies in Mackay. From there he expanded into land subdivisions, cabinet making
shops, earth moving, mine services, hospitality and various other business ventures along the way.

In recent years Rick’s focus has been his mine service company RD Services, which has provided various services to the mining companies. In addition to that onsite work, Rick has also built and installed thousands of workers accommodation units.

When the Mackay Marina was developed, Rick had the foresight to see the tourist potential of this location and opened one of the first businesses at this location (The Lighthouse Seafood Restaurant). This is an upmarket fish and chip shop which sells takeaways, sit down cooked meals, fresh seafood and wood fired pizzas. From this, Rick has developed Sails Sports Bar and The Deck Steakhouse. It is standing room only at Sails on a Sunday afternoon with live entertainment.

Rick is always one to see an opportunity where others do not and in early 2010 he purchased from the Mortgagee in possession, a partly completed high-rise development in Gordon Street, Mackay known as Latitude. The original development had been planned to have units for permanent residential occupation, however the development failed when the building was at the fourth level.

Rick has managed to refocus this development and Latitude will now contain a 115 room hotel, four (4) penthouses residential units, a restaurant and two (2) commercial tenancies. John Harris of Link Project Solutions is assisting Rick with this undertaking as the Development Manager. Rick has secured Quest as the operator for this development, work on which is expected to commence shortly and be completed within twelve months.

Our firm has had a long and happy relationship working with Rick, from assisting him with his first conveyance to now looking after all of his varied legal requirements. We wish Rick well for his Latitude development and all his future endeavours.