Loft on the Lane, Griffin Builders: Works to begin on site at CBD high-rise apartments in coming months

The next major development in Rockhampton’s city heart is about to begin. Full details here.

Supplies are being ordered, real estate contracts signed and construction documents approved as Rockhampton’s latest CBD high-rise development ‘Loft on the Lane’ nears its construction phase.

The 10-storey, 31-unit apartment building is to be built at the corner of Archer Street and Alma Lane, on the former CWA site.

Developer Griffin Builders released the units in April and just reached the halfway milestone with pre-sales hitting 50 per cent with 15 units under contract.

“Sales have been really good, we have been at the market now for four months, since April, we have had over 90 email enquiries which was great, lots of interest,” Riley Griffin said.

“That triggers our next phase so now we move into gearing up for construction, we have just commenced construction documentation.”

This was the second time the development was presented, with this time around proving to be hugely successful.

“We took Loft to the market in 2016 and we got seven contracts in 12 months so to see 15 contracts in four months is incredible,” Mr Griffin said.

“The market is there now. There is a lot of confidence, a lot of infrastructure, a lot of big projects happening, the economic stimulus the government are providing us, so the market is there.”

The interest has been mostly from young professionals and first home buyers.

“But then we also have a couple of elderly investors that are looking to get into the market,” Mr Griffin said.

“Through our marketing campaigns we have been running, you can see the return that are in these units.”

The next stage will be gaining the final approvals for building works, operational and Queensland fire.

“Once we get those three, we can hit the ground,” Mr Griffin said.

On-site work is scheduled to begin around mid-October.

“Once we hit our tender stage in the next three weeks, we will reach out to suppliers, get their quotes formalised,” Mr Griffin said.

Supplies are hard to get a hold of at the moment, an issue that is ongoing in the construction industry across the country, so to get ahead of this, they will be ordering stock early.

“We will start placing orders straight away so that they know we need the stock and we are ordering big quantities,” Mr Griffin said.

“We have seen a huge influx of work in the residential industry and that is all over Australia with this economic stimulus the government put in post-Covid, which is great to see, there are houses being built everywhere.

“There is a huge demand and the supply is not there and we are finding a gap.

“There has been a significant price increase in timber and steel almost up 20 to 25 per cent in the last couple of months.”