Not-so-sweet 16: Brisbane’s most controversial suburban projects
Most developments fly under the radar, but these 16 projects stretching from the bayside to the westside, and from Moorooka to the inner-north, have got people’s hackles up. Here’s why.
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CORRECTION
The original version of this article stated that the Keylin Group was “Chinese-backed.” This was incorrect. The Group is Australian-owned. Further, we were wrong to state that the Group “snuck” in its development application just prior to Christmas. We are advised that the DA was filed in a timely and legitimate manner. We apologise for the errors.
Hundreds of major residential, office and commercial projects are approved every year across Brisbane with almost nobody taking notice.
But some get under the skin of locals, sparking rallies, public meetings, letter writing campaigns and court appeals.
We take a look at 16 controversial developments in the planning, ready to start, or on hold until building costs and a volatile market calm down.
COLMSLIE
Rivermakers precinct
This proposal pitted richlister Balfour Irvine’s 30ha Rivermakers plans against beef baron Trevor Lee.
Mr Lee owns the neighbouring Australian Country Choice abattoir, which claims local roads are choked and can’t handle the extra traffic, and that the new uses are incompatible with an industrial area.
Country Choice appealed the approval of what could be one of Australia’s largest indoor gyms, TotalFusion, on part of the Morningside site.
Rivermakers has been developed over a number of years as a contemporary mix of manufacturing, retail and leisure.
Mr Irvine lodged a masterplan for the next phase of the waterfront precinct in March.
It will eventually link Colmslie boat ramp to the Colmslie Beach Reserve.
HIGHGATE HILL
5 Dudley St, lowrise unit block
Complaints about plans to replace a budget unit block with a five-storey building comprising eight luxury units went ballistic after revelations something strange was going on with public submissions.
Hundreds of online submissions in support of the waterfront project, lodged just days before public feedback closed, came from just four IP addresses.
Volunteers at a neighbouring community garden, Growing Forward, asked Council to investigate but it found no evidence of fraud.
Local Councillor Jonathan Sri had earlier complained that approving the project would set a precedent across the city, allowing lowrise unit blocks to be replaced with five-level projects in the middle of suburban streets.
KANGAROO POINT
Three-tower unit highrise project, 108 Lambert St
This Pedro Pikos development is so hated it sparked a street march and protest in the Council Chambers, but in the end Mr Pikos got his way and was allowed to proceed with the plan after a court ruling in May last year.
The $350 million luxury riverfront project includes three, 15-storey towers with 278 units.
Council rejected Pikos’ application to increase the heights of the towers from 10 storeys to 15 storeys, but the developer argued it met the current Neighbourhood Plan.
“We’re aware of the views raised by some local residents and we want to reassure the community that we’ve listened, and we’re invested in the future of Kangaroo Point,” Mr Pikos said at the time.
Shafston House highrise/townhouses/units
23 Castlebar St
A deeply unpopular plan to build a 15-level residential tower next to Brisbane’s third-oldest homestead has been savaged by a Government body tasked with protecting the state’s heritage.
Burgundy Group Property Development Pty Ltd stirred up a hornet’s nest of opposition from neighbours and heritage lovers in January when it lodged a development application to radically revamp Shafston House.
Only Newstead House (1846) and Bulimba House (1849-50) are older.
The plans also include converting the homestead itself into luxury private units, refitting the Orderlies building as communal recreation facilities as well as units in the Wards building.
The Postal Depot building would be re-purposed and luxury riverfront homes built.
MILTON
Bishopsbourne, Milton/Baroona Rds
Milton residents are alarmed housing or high-density development will replace one of the last big bush blocks anywhere near the CBD.
Bishopsbourne, a landmark 3.8ha block that was — until recent years — the headquarters of the Anglican Church in Brisbane since 1868, recently went on the market.
Agents Knight Frank described it as “one of inner Brisbane’s most exciting urban re-positioning strategies in recent years’’.
The Church insists the existing, historic buildings will be retained and refurbished and that it
will retain ownership of the site.
LOTA
162 Oceana Tce
The $60 million Manly Village luxury retirement village, on the site of heritage-listed Lota House, sparked rallies from hundreds of concerned residents.
In 2020 it was announced the project had been put on hold due to Covid. It is still in limbo.
Lota House, also known as Edwin Marsden Tooth Memorial Home, was built in stages from 1865 and was added to the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992.
After Council’s decision to refuse the application from the Village Retirement Group and Anglicare, the developers appealed in 2019.
The plan includes 100 units in two four-storey and two six-storey buildings.
MANLY
195 Stratton Tce
One of the biggest residential developments in Manly’s recent history, backers DeMartini Fletcher announced in February that it had been put on ice due to rising construction costs.
The four-storey, 43-unit residential and retail development was originally initially estimated to be worth around $25 million, but that has blown out by millions of dollars.
It was due for completion by the end of this year but might now not be ready until late 2023.
Residents appealed Council’s decision to approve the project, saying its height would hinder views of Moreton Bay.
MOOROOKA
Salisbury, Nathan and Moorooka Neighbourhood Plan
Up to 200 character homes in Moorooka are at risk under a new development framework proposed by Council Better Suburbs team, local Councillor Steve Griffiths says.
The plan would also allow medium-rise unit development near the railway line and the former “Magic Mile’’ on Beaudesert Rd.
Cr accused Council of trying to sneak through the massive changes, a claim it denied.
Three-storey units and townhouses would be allowed in some pre-1946 character streets
with largely intact yards including Helles, Durak, Lyon, Keats, Chaucer and Gainsborough streets.
NEW FARM
Child care centre, 618 Brunswick St
Award-winning former State Government Architect Professor Michael Keniger has appealed the approval of this 618 Brunswick St project.
Residents have set up a website and organised community meetings and street protests.
They say the proposed 100-place centre, which would have two basement parking levels, three levels for children and a rooftop plant level, was too big for narrow Terrace St.
It would worsen traffic, rat running and was potentially dangerous for motorists, they claimed.
The development said the proposal was “generally consistent with the intent for the site as anticipated in the planning scheme’’ and would not significantly impact on traffic levels.
SOUTH BRISBANE
World’s greenest building, Merivale Flats
Aria Property Group recently lodged plans for a 12-level medical and commercial tower after West End Community Association appealed an earlier $300 million, 20-level unit tower billed as the “world’s greenest’’ residential highrise.
Aria said it was concerned delays caused by the legal action would expose it to rising building costs.
Aria meanwhile has sparked about 40 objections to its plans to renovate and repurpose nearby, heritage Merivale Flats.
A former air raid shelter in the site was occupied by funky Paladar Fumior Salon, Brisbane’s only Cuban cigar bar, cafe and bookshop, but it subsequently closed.
SPRING HILL
Twin 15-level hotel/apartment towers, Warry St
This project by Keylin Group* was described by one Spring Hill resident as a “visual obscenity’’ and a blight Gregory Tce, one of only two remaining colonial-era terraces in Brisbane.
Keylin, however, disagreed and its planners said in the DA documents that the buildings were “modern yet enduring, with a scale responsive to the context it will be viewed from’’.
But despite strong protests from neighbours concerned about traffic on narrow Warry St, concerns about potential vibration damage to nearby heritage buildings during construction, overshadowing and the towers' appearance, Council approved it.
Plans for the 113 units, 120-bed hotel, 323 sqm function facility, pool, bar and restaurants were lodged just before Christmas, 2020.
STONES CORNER
Cnr Logan Rd/O’Keefe St
Singaporean property giant Wee Hur’s four-tower mixed use project at Stones Corner has raised concerns over traffic and parking.
It recently asked for more time to respond to State Government concerns about aspects of a development application it lodged last year over the site.
The plans include two commercial and aged care medium-rise towers and two residential highrises — 14 storeys higher than the neighbourhood plan allowed.
Local state Greens MP Amy MacMahon said the proposal, if approved, would add 600 car spaces to an area already gridlocked.
But planners Urbis said it would enhance the area and dovetail with Council’s Hanlon Park revitalisation project.
ST LUCIA
Ethereal Residences, 97 Swann Rd
The developer of “Ethereal Residences’’ unleashed a firestorm among neighbours who were appalled at its application to super-size the unit project after it acquired a neighbouring house.
Council eventually approved the upsized plans in December last year which now involve 46 units tiered down a side street off swanky Swann Rd.
Neighbours say the road is choked with through traffic and cars from a wave of medium-rise units projects now stretching almost the full length of the thoroughfare.
TOOWONG
Mosaic residential tower, Lissner St
Mosaic Property Group, which has built 10 other high-quality medium-rise unit projects in the Toowong/Indooroopilly area in recent years, has raised hackles this time after applying to build a unit tower twice the allowable height.
Resident David Williams said Mosaic’s claim that Council should override City Plan because the revised project was greatly improved did not stack up.
And its suggestion that it could not viably build an eight-storey project on the site, to the quality of its other 10 highrises in the area, was implausible.
Mosaic founder Brook Monahan penned a personal appeal to neighbouring Illumina tower owners explaining why he thought Council should approve the 15-level tower.
New inner-west primary school, Toowong Bowls Club site, Heroes Ave
Protests saw the initial plan to co-locate the new primary school on the Indooroopilly State High School site scrapped.
Education Minister Grace Grace recently said the new location, at the old Toowong Bowls Club, remained the preferred option for the $90 million school despite her seeking more advice on flooding.
The three levels of classrooms would be built above the 11m flood line, but the main access on Heroes Ave frequently floods.
There is also only one new pedestrian crossing planned but traffic lights might be installed to help with pedestrian and vehicle safety.
“Modified’’ construction methods would be used to limit impacts on a neighbouring bat colony, and students and staff would be separated from the colony by various structures.
WYNNUM
74 Charlotte St
Developer Hambros’ plan for a $130 million, 27-level residential project — way above the five to eight levels allowed for the area — had tongues wagging recently.
The 275-apartment tower would be built on vacant land behind the Wynnum Health Hub and feature a mix of one, two and three-bedroom units plus six penthouses.
It also includes 463 carpark spaces, 5600sq m of retail and office space, a rooftop pool, a pool on level five, restaurant, gym and function room.
Hambros said the neighbourhood plan was “too old’’ and needed to accommodate the growth the bayside has experienced in recent years.
Director Justin Ham said the development would bring foot traffic to the Wynnum CBD, boost businesses and values for landowners in the area.
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