Spyre adds Indooroopilly riverfront project to growing SEQ pipeline

Spyre Group is continuing to build out one of the more active prestige apartment pipelines in South East Queensland, filing plans for a boutique riverfront development in Indooroopilly.

The Brisbane-based developer, led by Daniel Laruccia and Andrew Malouf, has lodged an application for just eight apartments at 213 Clarence Road, a steep 2,181 sqm site that falls from Clarence Road toward the Brisbane River.

Bureau Proberts has designed the project as a stepped collection of homes rather than a conventional apartment building, taking cues from Indooroopilly's established landscape, modernist architectural history and subtropical setting.

The design report describes a composition of strong horizontal planes, deep cantilevers and green-pigmented concrete, with projecting terraces and overhangs used to break down the scale of the building and make each residence read more individually.

It is a deliberately small project for Spyre, but one that fits closely with the developer's strategy of targeting rare riverfront and beachfront sites for low-volume, high-end apartment developments.

The proposal would deliver a mix of large three and four-bedroom residences arranged between two and four storeys, with the building maintained below 14 metres above natural ground level. The planning report nominates six four-bedroom homes and two three-bedroom apartments.

Plans show the main apartment building sitting on the higher part of the site, while a separate two-level "Riverhome" would step down the steep terrain closer to the Brisbane River.

The composition includes a penthouse at the top of the main building, pairs of apartments through the levels below, and the two-storey Riverhome embedded further down the site. A single basement would accommodate 21 resident vehicles and two visitor spaces.

The site is currently occupied by a single house and has around 35 metres of frontage to Clarence Road. Much of the land falls sharply toward the river, dropping from around 30 metres AHD near the middle of the site to about five metres AHD toward its southern riverfront boundary.

The steep topography has become one of the key design drivers.

Bureau Proberts has effectively split the development into two built forms, allowing the Riverhome to descend with the land rather than extending the primary four-storey building down the slope.

From the river, the architects say the building is intended to appear as a series of inhabited terraces emerging from the hillside, while from Clarence Road the emphasis is on the long horizontal lines associated with Brisbane's mid-century modernist architecture.

Spyre will also have to carefully negotiate the site's heritage context.

Immediately adjoining the property is Tighnabruaich at 203 Clarence Road, a State Heritage-listed riverside residence. The planning team says the project has been positioned and landscaped to maintain the prominence of the heritage property and avoid disrupting public views toward it.

The proposal sits in the Low-Medium Density Residential zone and is currently subject to a three-storey, 11.5-metre code assessable height threshold because of its proximity to Indooroopilly Station.

That planning framework, however, is changing.

Brisbane City Council's More Homes, Sooner planning amendment is set to lift the code assessable height applicable to the site to four storeys and 14 metres. Spyre's proposal has been designed to those future controls, although it currently triggers impact assessment.

The site is within 400 metres walking distance of Indooroopilly Station, which the planning report identifies as part of the argument for accommodating greater density in the area.

The application comes as Spyre continues to significantly expand its development footprint across South East Queensland.

Its Brisbane pipeline already includes the six-residence Moray House on the New Farm riverfront and Arc Residences in Toowong, while construction is progressing on the 15-apartment Watts & Wright development on one of Bulimba's final major riverfront sites. Spyre's current portfolio identifies Moray House, Arc and Watts & Wright among its active Brisbane projects.

The developer has increasingly mirrored that riverfront strategy on the Gold Coast.

Echo by Spyre is under construction on the Tugun beachfront, following Spyre's completion of record-setting projects including Glasshouse and Natura at Burleigh Heads, Cala Dei at Coolangatta and Maya at Kirra Beach. Its portfolio now counts six recent Gold Coast projects, with a seventh on the way in Main Beach.