Boomers pursue garden apartment living in city centres
LONDON: Boomers are pursuing garden apartment living environments in the heart of busy cities.
Nearly seven years after buying a development site in Brisbane’s Albion, property investment specialist OpenCorp has finalised what it wants to do with it.
Opencorp, founded by Matthew and Allister Lewison in 2005, have filed plans for two 11-storey towers at 31 Dover Street, Albion, a 5,600 sqm site they bought for $11 million in 2016.
They’ve had Hayes Anderson Lynch (HAL) draw up the plans for the development, which will home 218 one, two and three-bedroom apartments across both stages.
HAL have pointed the two towers together to form a V shape, which helps maximise daylight and passive ventilation to all sides of the development. They also prioritized views towards the project’s green spaces, as well as the wider city skyline. The premium apartments toward the top of the towers will have uninterrupted city vews.
The ‘V’ shape allows for a larger average setback to the side boundaries and street frontage of the development, while also increasing the average setback between towers, which supports the ground floor communal space. This ‘V’ shape also ensures that each residence’s balcony to the inside of the site has a view into the communal courtyard and away from the other tower.
A lush oasis will be developed across the ground floor, with the communal area featuring a gym, functional space and barbecue facilities, along with a variety of seating areas nestled within verdant landscaping.
Each of the towers will also include a communal rooftop area, offering views toward the city and across the surrounding suburb. They will each have their own pool.
OpenCorp co-founder Allister Lewison says the project will suit those buyers who are priced out of neighbouring Newstead.
“We’re located in a pocket where we’re surrounded by Newstead, Hamilton, and Ascot, some of the more affluent suburbs in Brisbane,” Lewison said.
When developing plans for the project, the team commissioned The National Property Research Co. to dig into the demographics of Albion, which found the average Albion resident is getting younger.
“We conducted our research and found a lot of mid 20s and 30-year old renters living in neighbouring areas aren’t likely to be able to afford the increasingly unaffordable suburbs,” Lewison says.
“We’ve created a product mix where we can offer something for the first home buyer, as well as rightsizers and young families.
The The National Property Research Co. report says around one third of Albion’s population sits in the in the 25 to 34 age bracket. They said employment opportunities, as well as the suburb’s location and proximity to entertainment precincts such as Race Course Road, James Street and Fortitude Valley, have been driving factors in the millennial demographic surge.
Lewison expects there to be a good balance between both owner-occupiers and investors, given soaring rents and the extensive infrastructure planned in the area as part of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
Last year the Brisbane City Council announced Crosby Park and the Albion Park Raceway, less than 100 metres from the Dover Street site, would be redeveloped into a 29 hectare sports precinct which will include the Brisbane Indoor and Para Sports Centre for the Olympic Games.
Celebrating Brisbane’s subtropical environment, landscaping and subtropical design are integral to the Dover Street development’s design. Landscape elements have been integrated throughout the building, from the green spaces along the street, to the communal courtyard which will be located toward the back of the development. Planter boxes will also be used on the facade, which will not only support the green environment but also add a layer of detail to the facade.
The site will embrace its inner-city locale, providing over 270 resident and visitor bike parking spaces, while also being near to the Albion Train Station, in addition to a number of bus stops, helping to reduce the reliance on car transport.
