18-storey apartment tower proposed for Bundall car park

An 18-storey residential tower is planned for a landlocked car park in Bundall's employment precinct, one of a growing number of proposals testing how far the suburb can push past its own height limits.

The development seeks approval for 150 apartments and a ground-floor food and drink outlet at 8 Frigo Court, Bundall. 

The 2,429 sqm site at 8 Frigo Court sits within a pocket of Innovation Zone land off Bundall Road, hemmed in on all sides by commercial and office uses, with access via a narrow 10-metre handle to Frigo Court.

Architect Contreras Earl has organised the tower around a four-petal plan form, generating 12 distinct apartment layouts per level and orienting the building to capture ocean, hinterland, and urban views across different aspects. 

The 150 apartments break down to 22 one-bedroom units, 74 two-bedroom units across varying bathroom configurations, and 54 two-bedroom apartments with multipurpose rooms. 

Each apartment opens to a private balcony directly off the living area, with a number of units also carrying secondary balconies adjoining master bedrooms. 

Residents will have access to communal amenities spread across three levels, with a pool, landscaped terraces and recreation rooms. 

On the ground level, a 218sqm commercial tenancy is designed to function as a café or food and drink outlet, with the zone code permitting flexible conversion to office, retail, or health care uses if the market shifts.

Frigo Court sits within Bundall's Innovation Zone and the Gold Coast Cultural Precinct, a pocket of the suburb anchored by the Home of the Arts (HOTA) complex and the Gold Coast Turf Club, with the city's light rail corridor accessible to the east and Council's own offices a short walk north. The surrounding built form is a mix of low-to-mid-rise office buildings, parking podiums, and the eclectic structures of the HOTA campus itself, with little residential presence at present.

The development joins a growing queue of Bundall applications seeking to push above local planning controls. A 21-townhouse project at 16-26 Mercedes Place in the same suburb has also sought approval above both height and density limits, a pattern that suggests developers are increasingly looking inland for viable density sites as the Gold Coast's beachfront land runs thin.