Luxury FV apartment complex sells out in Fortitude Valley

Tim Gurner says people laughed at him when he proposed building three luxury residential towers in Fortitude Valley.

But it’s Mr Gurner who is having the last laugh, with buyers spending $540 million to snap up the 910 apartments on offer in the FV complex.

The site at 147 Alfred St will feature the Flatiron – based on the famous New York building of the same name – and Valley House buildings, along with the cream of the crop, a tower dubbed No.1.

No.1 includes 266 apartments, a hotel-style lobby and concierge, eight swimming pools, moonlight cinema, a gym and yoga studio and private dining areas.

One-bedroom apartments across the buildings ranged from $350,000 to $500,000, while two-bedrooms were sold for between $480,000 and $720,000.

“There were a lot of people in Brisbane who thought that end of Fortitude Valley was not the right end to be,” Mr Gurner said.

“But from an outside perspective I come into Brisbane and I don’t think there’s a better development market in Australia. We’re 300 metres from the CBD, we’re 50 metres from the train station and we’re in the heart of the action, right in the heart of where you want to be.”

Mr Gurner said sought to attract local buyers by ramping up the luxury factor.

“We only sold 12 per cent of the whole project overseas … we didn’t do one campaign overseas, they were just locals who hadn’t got residency here yet,” he said.

“We’ve had a very big following from local owner occupiers who are working in the city or Newstead and wanted that level of quality and amenity.”

The first of the two Elenberg Fraser-designed towers sold out in 12 weeks last year, while No.1 sold out in the last six weeks.

When complete, the towers will house 1500 residents and there will be about 900 car parking spaces.

All that remains are four $1.8 million penthouses.

The Flatiron and Valley buildings are expected to be completed by 2017, with No.1 finished in early 2018.

Mr Gurner said his company was scoping out other sites in Brisbane to develop.