Crow Flies North for Gold Coast Tower

Former AFL player Scott Crow has lodged plans with the Gold Coast City Council for a 33-storey tower on an agglomerated site at Broadbeach.

A duplex, house and two-storey apartment block will make way for a 203-apartment tower on the 1768sq m site at 33-37 Armrick Avenue.

St Kilda East-based Crow’s Armrick Developments Pty Ltd has a put and call option on the properties in the light rail urban renewal area.

The Plus Architecture-designed 33-storey tower features two two-storey penthouses with private rooftop pools, sub penthouses and a mix of apartments. 

According to planning documents, Armrick will include a level of communal amenities including a pool, yoga deck, gym and steam room. The tower has been designed to embody the “nostalgic character” of the Gold Coast. 

“Considered design strategies have been used to reduce bulk, step the facade, create articulation and respond to the street through activation of the ground floor,” the report said.  

“At a pedestrian scale, the building offers both public amenity through well considered architecture and generous landscaping, as well as private amenity through internal lobbies and external breakout spaces and recreational facilities. 

“The tower’s fluid movement expresses the rhythm of surrounding landscapes while respecting appropriate setbacks and site cover.”

▲ Armrick will comprise 203 apartments across 33 storeys in an under-developed pocket of Broadbeach.

The development site is close to the Gold Coast’s light rail corridor and walking distance to the beach. 

Planners said the architectural form of Armrick would create a visually striking addition to the streetscape, and contribute to the transition towards a more compact, interesting, connected and active urban neighbourhood within the Light Rail Urban Renewal Area. 

GV Property put together the three-lot agglomeration deal over three months and transacted the site. 

According to the ShapingSEQ outlined in the current City Plan, the Gold Coast needs to provide 158,900 extra dwellings to meet growth obligations by 2041.

Eighty per cent of new dwellings should be in existing locations and 20 per cent in expanded areas of the city.

But developers have been scrambling to rush development applications through Gold Coast City Council ahead of proposed planning changes that could materially impact the feasibility of towers on the Gold Coast.

The proposed amendments effectively reduce density along the city’s established coastal strip through increased setbacks, reduced building heights and down-zoning. 

Development industry experts are warning the changes pose a serious threat to residential project viability—particularly tower developments—and supply in the city that’s famed for its skyline of skyscrapers.  

Seeking approval of the controversial amendments, the Gold Coast City Council sent the proposed changes to the Queensland government in late December. It is waiting for them to be assessed and for the minister to sign off on them.

Midfielder Crow played 75 matches for Collingwood and Hawthorn, hanging up the boots in 1999.