Gurner Puts Fortitude Valley Tower on Backburner Again

Plans for a 184-apartment tower at 156 Alfred Street have been pushed back again after Melbourne developer Gurner filed for a four-year extension to the approved development application.

The original development application was filed in 2015, which won approval in mid-2016.

The Elenberg Fraser-designed 15-storey tower in Fortitude Valley had already received a two-year extension to planning approvals, which were due to expire on June 15, 2022. 

But Mewing Planning Consultants principal planner Felicity Cox said the impacts of Covid-19 on the residential market had interfered with plans to market and sell the project. 

“An extension of four years is requested to provide [Gurner] with sufficient time to undertake detailed design, construct and complete the approved development, which is notably of a substantial scale,” Cox said in a submission to the Brisbane City Council. 

“Global circumstances and the residential unit market in recent years have had an impact on the property and its development. 

“The impact to the property market has delayed the applicant’s marketing and sale of the development (which was imminent prior to Covid-19), however, there remains strong and imminent intention to progress the marketing and construction soon.”

▲ Gurner's plans for a 15-storey tower at 156 Alfred Street have been pushed back again.

Gurner founder Tim Gurner said the asset was acquired as a long-term investment asset with a government tenant in place. 

“That tenant recently renewed its lease for another three years so the planning extension was undertaken accordingly,” Gurner told The Urban Developer.

In 2016 Gurner stalled plans for the tower at 156 Alfred Street, citing a residential downturn in the Brisbane market. 

Gurner said it would be developed in “the next market cycle” in the face of escalating construction costs six years ago, and a softening development financing market.  

It comes off the back of the acquisitive developer announcing $500-million plans for its first development in Western Australia last week.

Gurner has partnered with Geelong’s Costa Property Group and Grange Development in a mixed-use apartment project in Nedlands. 

Gurner spent much of 2021 acquiring sites for prospective build-to-rent developments alongside its financial backer, Qualitas.