Spyre Group's Brisbane riverside development Arc a response to demographic shift
The Australian
15 July, 2022
Mackenzie Scott
After achieving success in the luxury high-rise property market on the Gold Coast, Spyre Group has turned its focus further north to Brisbane to take advantage of strong demand.
The property developer’s $110m tower, dubbed Arc, will overlook the city’s serpentine river from its position in the inner-west suburb of Toowong.
Designed to match the city and its landscape, the 10-storey tower will feature 28 apartments, have a landscaped rooftop to take in panoramic views out to Mt Coot-tha, as well as public space at the ground level.
Since the pandemic set in, expats and interstate buyers have flocked to the Sunshine State capital to take advantage of the city’s relaxed lifestyle and relative affordability, creating competition with locals for high-end homes.
Spyre Group founder and chief executive Daniel Laruccia has watched the demographic shift, which aligns with the business’s vision for realising the potential of unique locations.
“The Spyre Group customer is not your typical buyer,” Laruccia said.
“Demand for these local premium listings comes in response to prestige homebuyers investing more in their homes as personal sanctuaries, a trend in Brisbane influenced by the interstate pilgrimage to the Sunshine State.”
Spyre has been carving out its place as one of Queensland’s premier luxury multi-residential property developers for more than a decade, and has more than $750m worth of projects either completed or in the pipeline.
In April, a new Queensland off-the-plan apartment record was set by Spyre when a penthouse within its Glasshouse project at Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast sold for $20m.
The recent pandemic boom has proved beneficial for the local property player, which sold out its $50m Natura tower in one weekend in early 2020 and last year achieved $7.1m off the plan for the penthouse of its $57m Cala Dei Coolangatta.
Arc will be positioned at 570 Coronation Drive on a rare riparian site near the water’s edge and potential buyers will have their pick of 27 three-bedroom apartments and one four-bedroom penthouse, which has yet to be revealed.
One of the prominent features of the design is the colonnade at the base of the tower, which will allow passers-by and the public to enjoy the view.
Spyre Group’s Arc design manager, Kent Pinel, said the site’s historical and geographical context was a significant consideration.
“The city of Brisbane offers the landscape and the subtropical feel; it has a connection to the water and an openness,” he said.
“Arc’s design takes all these elements into consideration — it is befitting of the location … it’s Brisbane’s Building.
“Arc is great architecture and great design working in perfect harmony; it is a building that is customised to fit the city and surroundings, and not the other way round.”
Prices will begin at $2.995m and marketing will be handled by Bryce O’Connor, group director of project marketing firm YPM.
Expressions of interest are now open and appointments are available from mid July. Construction is on track to commence in March 2023.
Arc will be positioned alongside local developer Consolidated Properties Group’s Monarch Residences which is a landmark $375m dual tower project at 600 Coronation Drive.
The two, 15-storey structures will sit atop 1.2ha of riverfront gardens with about 130m of direct river frontage.
The prized yet controversial site at the end of Coronation Drive once belonged to the ABC which sold the site to prolific southeast Queensland developer Sunland in 2013.
Plans for a fluted three-tower precinct with parklands triggered legal battles over claims of exceeding height restrictions and was eventually scrapped five years later.
