Firm behind rejected Toowong 'flutes' development prepares new project

The developers behind the much-debated "champagne-flutes" development for Toowong rejected by the Supreme Court in 2018 have started a new project for the site.

Critical to the development will be how traffic from Coronation Drive will be handled, a town planning expert says.

Sunland’s artists impression of Grace on Coronation development on Brisbane River in Toowong, Brisbane.Credit: AFR

Sunland managing director Sahba Abedian said a new development application was now being prepared for the riverside site.

“We are now directing every effort to conceive a new architectural outcome that celebrates the unique riverfront site and contributes to Brisbane’s coming of age as a true international city,” Mr Abedian said.

“It is in the early planning stages and as such, no further details will be available until a new development application is lodged.”

Brisbane’s City Plan zones the site opposite Toowong Village Shopping Centre as a major commercial, mixed-use centre with a maximum of 15 storeys.

Adjunct Professor John Brannock, the course co-ordinator for town planning at the University of Queensland, said there were only narrow roads and established houses between Coronation Drive and the river near the Toowong site.

“Commercial, or retail, and office block development should be part of the mix and residential should be secondary according to the planning scheme,” he said.

Professor Brannock said it would be possible to design “four or five” buildings up to 15 storeys on the 1.5 hectare site.

“However, traffic has to be taken into account.

“That is going to be done of the very significant problems they are going to encounter,” he said.

“How the traffic gets in and out of the site and the fact that a lot of the traffic leaving the site will have to run through narrow residential streets,” he said.

“That is going to be the big problem.”

Sunland’s 2014 application for its Grace on Coronation development was refused in 2018 by Brisbane’s Supreme Court, which upheld an objection lodged by nearby resident, Kate Peta Bell, in 2015.

While the neighbourhood plan allowed for five towers on the area, Sunland’s application included three residential towers; two were 24 storeys in height and the third was 27 storeys.

The towers included 486 apartments and eight riverfront villas.

The towers gave the appearance of champagne flute, where the open space and gardens filled out the ground floors beneath the stems.

Almost half of the Grace on Coronation site became public parkland in the 2014 application.

Professor Brannock said parkland was a "desirable feature" for the large block of land in any new application.

Residents appealed the 27-storey development when the Brisbane City Council did not enforce the 15-storey limit.

Much of the 1.5-hectare site was the ABC’s former Toowong headquarters, abandoned in December 2006 after a series of breast cancer scares from female staff.

The former ABC Studios at Toowong.Credit: Michelle Smith

A five-month investigation by an independent review panel was conducted after 13 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in the past 11 years.

Eight of the women worked in the newsroom and most had been there more than five years.

No cause was identified, although the cancer cluster was investigated twice.

Sunland then bought the abandoned ABC site in 2013 for $20 million.

The company’s original application for Toowong was designed by prominent architect Dame Zaha Hadid, who twice won Britain’s principal architecture awards.

Hadid died in 2016.

“Dame Zaha Hadid was truly one of the most creative designers of our generation and leaves behind a legacy of unique architectural works that will inspire generations,” Mr Abedian said.

“When we lodged our development application in 2014, our vision was to introduce world-class architecture and community parklands to the inner-city riverfront site, which has been closed to the public for more than 160 years.

“Unfortunately, Brisbane will not form part of this legacy.”