CFMEU Queensland Wins Green Light for Build-to-Rent Tower

The CFMEU’s build-to-rent tower in Brisbane’s Bowen Hills has been granted approval. 

The Nettletontribe-designed 30-storey building at 19-25 Campbell Street sits in a priority development zone in Brisbane’s CBD on an amalgamated 3276sq m block. 

The CFMEU’s Queensland branch, under state secretary Michael Ravbar, acquired the site between December 2019 and July 2020 for a combined price of $17 million. 

Approval was granted for 380 apartments instead of the proposed 377, with a mix of 25 three-bedroom units, 52 studio units, 199 one-bedroom units and 104 two-bedroom units. 

There will also be parking for 252 cars and 475 bicycles. 

The development will feature a private residents’ lounge on its first level and another breakout space for residents across the building’s podium.

Amenities will include co-working spaces and resident’s lounge, pool and outdoor dining facilities as well as a vegetable garden, a boules court, indoor and outdoor gyms, terraces and alternating gardens and balconies between floors. 

The pool and spa will be located on the roof deck, offering views of the surrounding city.

The Brisbane City Council has facilitated the rezoning of land near major industrial precincts in a draft strategy released last year.

It’s made room for a surge of build-to-rent applications in recent months.

Pellicano broke ground on a SJB-designed $40 million, 77-apartment project Perry House in Bowen Hills in May 2021 with completion scheduled for late 2022.

US private equity firm Blackstone also has made plans to convert a vacant apartment building in Kangaroo Point into a build-to-rent asset after purchasing it for $100 million.

In Newstead, Singaporean property giant Frasers Property has lodged plans for a 16-storey build-to-sell apartment tower on the 3000sq m site on the corner of Chester and Moore Streets with 142 apartments and ten townhouses.

The Urban Developer contacted the CFMEU for comment but the CFMEU did not return comment in time for publishing.