Newstead development to complete Riverwalk’s missing link

1 week ago 5

A vital missing link in Brisbane’s Riverwalk will be completed as part of a new riverside tower development proposed for Newstead.

Consolidated Property Group submitted plans for a development – including a 25-storey tower designed by Woods Bagot architects – with Brisbane City Council late last week.

Alongside the tower, 12 “ultra-luxury” riverfront villas in the four-storey Garden Terraces will face the new six-metre-wide addition to the Riverwalk.

One of the last pieces of undeveloped Brisbane riverfront land appears set to be developed.

Hutchinson Builders will construct the project, with work expected to start next year.

Woods Bagot principal David Lee said the design team knew the site demanded “something notable”.

“The design is elegant, confident and timeless,” he said.

CPG chairman Don O’Rorke in his riverside office.

“Classical motifs are reinterpreted and abstracted to create a modern aesthetic on key architectural elements, like the slab edges, columns and balustrade.”

CPG bought the 9368-square-metre site for $64.5 million from Mirvac Group through an off-market deal in July.

“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.

“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.

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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