First look exclusive: Salter Brothers plot new Brisbane apartments
Diversified investment group and property developer Salter Brothers is set for its first development play in the Queensland capital.
While they own and operate a handful of retreats across the Gold Coast and outer Brisbane through their Spicers Retreats brand which they acquired in late 2022, their new project, exclusively revealed by Urban.com.au, is their first within the City of Brisbane.
Salter Brothers, who is based in Melbourne but has several hotels and commercial assets nationally, is seeking to demolish the Mercure Brisbane Garden City Hotel in Upper Mount Gravatt and develop a new 17-level apartment building at 18 Macgregor Street, Upper Mount Gravatt.
They've had Bates Smart, who has worked more in Sydney and Melbourne since it was founded in the mid-1850s, create the plans for the mixed-use building that will have 101 apartments above a four-level podium. That will home a 90-space childcare centre and parking for 107 cars.
The residential apartments will start from level six and run through to level 17. The apartments are expressed as "gently undulating petals," Bates Smart wrote in their submission to the Brisbane City Council.
"The tower form and floorplate have been inspired by the native indigenous Tea Tree Flower and Wallum Banksia, two species of flora endemic to the region. This resulted in each apartment being expressed as an individual 'petal' with a curved edge, spatially and visually separated from the apartment adjacent."
There will be eight apartments per floor, six two-beds and two three-bedders. Living rooms and balconies are oriented to achieve maximum amenity through view outlook and solar access.
A rooftop communal terrace will span the entirety of level 18. It's been conceived as an extension of the nearby Toohey Forest Park which is known for its ecological significance and native flora and fauna. The rooftop will have a pool, mineral spa, and a landscaped seating area oriented to the north where they enjoy primary view outlook towards Mount Gravatt.
A resident gym and separate amenity room are located east and west of the core, while to the south there will be a landscaped barbecue area.
Bates Smart said Mount Gravatt was known by the local Turrbal and Jagera Peoples as 'kaggur-madul', meaning the 'Place of the Echidna', or 'Where Echidnas Rest'.
They said they when they designed the external shading system, they took inspiration from the delicate fine grain repetition of echidna spikes and their use in traditional indigenous jewellery making, where the quills were dried, treated with emu oil, and then assembled into beautiful strings of necklaces which express a strong linear repetition that enhances the legibility of curved surfaces they adorn.
The 5,356 sqm site is ideally located a five-minute walk from Garden City Westfield, one of Brisbane's largest shopping centres.
Down in its native Melbourne, Salter is currently developing Candela Ivanhoe, 62 one, two three and four-bedroom apartments in Melbourne's north east.
