“Sites like this are as rare as it gets,” CPG chairman and chief executive Don O’Rorke said at the time.
After submitting the development application to council, O’Rorke’s enthusiasm showed no sign of abating.
“I’ve spent the last 10 years in our office looking next door to Customs House and thinking, ‘imagine if we could build something like that’,” he said.
“We want this building to be considered one of Brisbane’s best in 100 years. I want my great-great-grandchildren to be proud [to] say that we built this.”
CPG head of residential James MacGinley said more than 75 per cent of the apartments would have a river view.
But for those not in the market for premium housing, the privately funded extension to the Riverwalk would provide some public amenity.
“The proposed development will deliver the final critical link connecting Newstead’s waterfront to Teneriffe,” urban planners Therefor Group wrote in an assessment report submitted to the council on CPG’s behalf.
The development will include a new section of the Brisbane Riverwalk.Credit: Woods Bagot
“The design is deliberately oriented to the Riverwalk to provide casual surveillance, enhance safety, and create a high-quality and engaging public realm.”
Next to the electricity transmission tower connecting Newstead to Bulimba, the site was formerly used to store coal, oil and petroleum, among other industrial uses.
On the other side of the transmission tower, Kokoda Property is in the process of redeveloping a former sand and gravel yard into its Tides of Teneriffe complex, which would go as high as 18 storeys.
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That project also included a Riverwalk extension, which would link up with CPG’s planned section.
As CPG’s development was mostly code-compliant, its approval was likely a formality – but there was one potentially contentious feature.
Therefor notes in its assessment report that the City Plan now specifies a maximum, instead of minimum, number of carparks within the “city core”.
Under the policy, meant to improve housing affordability, “city core” developments would be limited to 0.5 car spaces per one-bedroom, one per two-bedroom, 1.5 per three-bedroom and two for four or more bedroom units.
“The traffic assessment prepared by Colliers confirms that the proposed residential parking supply of 438 spaces (1.86 spaces per unit/0.74 per bedroom) is appropriate and justified, notwithstanding that it exceeds the maximum rate for the City Core,” Therefor’s report said.
“The additional parking responds to market demand for larger, higher-value apartments in Newstead, where purchasers typically expect greater car ownership than anticipated under the recent policy change.”
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