What downturn? Developer to build ninth tower in red-hot westside

Forget about Covid and downturns, one developer thinks this westside suburb is a prime spot to build its ninth apartment tower, a 14-storey, 101 unit monster.

The explosion in apartment building in Toowong is showing no signs of slowing down after a prominent developer announced plans for its ninth project in the westside.

Mosaic Property Group has submitted a development application for a 14-level residential building at 24-28 Lissner St, a stone’s throw from Toowong Village Shopping Centre.

An area within a 500m radius of the site is poised for a stunning construction boom in the next five or so years, with plans unveiled in recent times for a two-tower residential project at the old ABC site.

The defunct Woolies site will be transformed into a major cinema, office, retail and residential hub, while Brisbane City Council will build one of its five green bridges from the ABC site to West End.

There are a plethora of smaller projects planned.

An artist's impression of the proposed tower.

DKO Architecture will design the latest offering from Mosaic, which will have 101 medium density units — 67 of them two-bed and 34 three bed.

The existing buildings will be demolished.

The tower will be topped with 540 sqm of communal open space including a pool, terrace and balconies.

There will be 155 carparks, including 16 visitor spaces, spread over two basement levels, with access via Lissner St.

DKO said the building transitioned from bigger development around the shopping centre to detached, mainly Queenslander housing near Lissner St.

Aerial view of the Lissner St development site.

Only last March, Mosaic revealed it would start sales of units at its $50 million Kensington development at 36 Sylvan Rd, several hundred metres away.

Kensington was its eighth development in the inner west.

Another 62-unit Mosaic project in Toowong, the $80 million Patterson tower, will be completed in 2022 after all its units were snapped up within six weeks of being released in October.

Their average sale price was $1.3 million.

Patterson angered neighbours as it sits on narrow, clifftop Archer St which has been inundated with development.

Artist's impression of how the rooftop area would look.

A student accommodation tower on the street was changed to short-term accommodation because of the collapse in the overseas student market, drawing fury from neighbours because of the small number of car spaces.

Historic Tudor home Linden Lea, on the opposite side of the street, was controversially demolished to make way for townhouses.

Mosaic’s Brook Monahan said despite initial gloomy predictions for the property market during the early stages of the pandemic, there was now “massive pent up demand” for luxury apartments.

More details are available on Council’s development application portal development i. Search for 24 Lissner St or application number A005790548