Reality television star Sasha Mielczarek and partner Carly Cottam bought a Gold Coast property

Bachelorette winner Sasha Mielczarek didn’t just make lemonade when his reality TV romance with actress Sam Frost turned sour – he bought the whole lemonade factory.

The 2015 reality contestant and his wife, property marketer Carly Cottam, have dropped $2.36m on a stripped-back 4.09ha property on the Gold Coast Hinterland.

But this isn’t your standard luxury purchase, with the sprawling block sold for land value after sitting as an abandoned house frame for years – the casualty of a bitter Supreme Court feud between directors of a popular beverage company.

Sasha Mielczarek during filming of The Bachelorette

Selling agent John Fischer, of PRD Real Estate, said the property’s bizarre state was the result of a failed plan to produce lemonade from the picturesque Tallebudgera Valley site.

“It’s a pretty complicated story,” Mr Fischer said. “It was purchased by a company, and the directors of that company had invested in it together to run a lemonade business of some sort.”

Brisbane Supreme Court documents reveal a protracted civil dispute, its fallout leaving behind the shell of the original five-bedroom home built on the site in the 1990s.

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On the lower level, garish red and gold columns still stand where the business had set up to produce its range of fruit drinks, sold from market stalls across the Gold Coast.

Once the legal dust settled, Mielczarek, who had been hunting for the perfect project, moved quick to secure the property, with two other offers placed shortly after the lemonade mansion hit the market.

Mr Fischer said the block was a diamond in the rough with potential to host two luxury homes commanding ocean views and located within minutes to Burleigh Beach.

Mielczarek said he was more excited than daunted at the prospect of tackling their biggest project yet.

“I was more nervous showing Carly after buying the joint without her ever laying eyes on it,” he said.

“Gave the place a quick tickle before she went out there and, luckily, she’s on board. Still not entirely sure how I pulled that off.”

The hinterland property was stripped back to its frame

Downstairs was set up as a business outlet by the previous owners

The lemonade was sold from some of the Gold Coast’s most popular weekend markets

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Despite its dilapidated state, Mielczarek said the site offered the opportunity to, “build something special with a heap of upside”.

“We were looking for something where the little ones could grow up with a bit of dirt under their nails.

“This will be our fourth project together.

“Each one seems to get bigger than the last, which probably isn’t great for the stress levels, but it keeps things interesting.

“Let’s just say, this one might be the real test for the marriage,” he said.

The house had five bedrooms

The couple has engaged Studio Workshop Architects to design a forever home.

They retain a three-bedroom house with a pool in Burleigh Heads, purchased for $2.15m in 2021.

Mielczarek previously sold a beautifully renovated 1890s cottage in Bowral for $2.7m in 2024, following the sale of another NSWsouthern highlands property – a new-build on a block he had planned to buy with Sam Frost.

The ill-fated TV couple had split by the time of the block’s $420,000 settlement in 2016. Frost secured roles as a radio host and on Home and Away, while Mielczarek finished construction of the home, which sold for $2.6m in 2020.

Cottam, a champion rower, founded property sales and marketing firm MOTIV, and the couple welcomed their first child, a baby girl, in 2023.

Mielczarek’s previous project in Bowral, NSW