Shovels have hit dirt for Cielo Group’s luxury apartment complex in Brisbane after the project was finally greenlit.
The developer first lodged plans for the project with the Brisbane City Council in 2022, proposing a block of 13 apartments as well as a rooftop bar and ground-floor cafe in the riverside Brisbane suburb of Bulimba.
The approval for the development dubbed Bhode follows a refusal by the council in 2023, which almost blocked the plans.
In its refusal, the council outlined suitability issues, saying that the proposal’s non-residential element sought to expand town centre activities outside the designated area, as well as raising concerns over carparking, boundary setback, height, shared entrances and the “high level of comfort, quiet, privacy and safety ... expected within the low-medium density”.
Cielo appealed the decision that year in the Planning and Environment Court, which conditionally approved the plan this month.
According to Milton Zietsman, director of ZArchitects, who designed the project, approvals for the site were negotiated through the courts, allowing them to offer counterpoints to the Brisbane City Council’s reasons for dismissing the proposals.
“This process keeps both parties accountable and it makes sure that the approvals are given within the legal merit, where the City Plan from 2014 in some instances doesn’t cater for the growth needed in these suburbs,” Zietsman said.
“It was a new process for us as a team, but it proved to be a successful strategy in unlocking additional real estate.”
Cielo Group Construction, the group’s in-house construction arm, is now moving ahead on the project at 360 Riding Road, also known as 495 Hawthorne Road, a 1143sq m corner block.
The project at the roundabout at the end of Bulimba’s Oxford Street will offer a mix of two and three-bedroom apartments.
Demolition of the site is in progress, and construction is expected to complete in mid-2026.
It’s not Cielo Group’s first foray into Bulimba—it filed plans for an Oxford Street regeneration project, adding two rooftop restaurants to the building plans last year.
Once a sleepy riverfront suburb, development in Bulimba has picked up the pace with Zephyr Group plotting luxury apartments at Byron Street, while the redevelopment of the Bulimba Barracks at Apollo Street into a development of more than 800 homes continues.
