Tim Gurner calls halt to new Fortitude Valley, Brisbane project
Tim GURNER's newly proposed apartment development at 156-162 Alfred Street, Brisbane, will now be developed in the next property boom.
The Melbourne developer had just received approval for a $140 million apartment project in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley, but says he will now wait for the next cycle to develop.
"There is no doubt that the Brisbane market has slowed in recent months," he told the Australian Financial Review.
"Developer funding challenges and increasing construction costs have made the environment increasingly difficult to get new projects off the ground in Brisbane, but we are committed to Fortitude Valley and excited to launch this project in the next market cycle," Mr GURNER said.
His proposed 15-level building on Alfred Street, designed by Elenberg Fraser, would have provided 184 apartments.
Mr GURNER said that his financing was secure but he had known of several other projects where financing had been knocked back.
"It is the escalation of construction prices in Brisbane in the past 12-18 months that will pose more of an issue," Mr GURNER said.
"Projects that weren't fully pre-sold last year are now not viable given the recent spike in construction costs, which is incredibly shortsighted as this will only hurt builders and trades in the following 12-36 months when there won't be any new projects to commence construction," he said.
Construction on his $600 million FV project proceeds elsewhere in Fortitude Valley, at Brunswick Street, Alfred Street and Barry Parade, in what was GURNER's first foray interstate.
The project, also been designed by architects Elenberg Fraser, secured strong sales after its late 2014 launch.
Dubbed by the Melbourne Age newspaper as "gym owner turned blue-collar then white-collar property developer," GURNER is speculated to have sold a major development site in Footscray.
The 1 Warde Street site covers 2170 sq m with a permit for towers rising 26 levels and containing 388 dwellings atop a commercial component.
Set within the state government's Joseph Road urban renewal precinct, The Age advised the recent sale price has not yet been disclosed by CBRE's Mark Wizel.
More than $10 million had been sought.
Tim GURNER was among a group of young property developers who burst onto the recent BRW Rich 200 list this year.
He was the list's youngest debutant, aged only 34 and with an estimated $460 million fortune.
GURNER is concentrating mainly on Melbourne but has in the past month settled on two sites in Sydney.