Ronnie Tarabay’s Next Property Play in Brisbane

Plans for a 200-apartment project at Windsor have been filed with the Brisbane City Council on the former site of a Denmac car yard. 

The 4213sq m site is being developed by Dubai Group, which acquired it for $9.5 million in August of 2022. 

Dubai Group managing director Ronnie Tarabay is also managing director of Bekaa Group, which developed La Vida on Commercial Road at Newstead, and owner of Burleigh’s iconic Fish House restaurant. 

The Ellivo Architects-designed project is a 13-storey, two-tower residential development proposed for the inner-city site that would capitalise on “access to essential services, key transport and critical care infrastructure”, according to Place Design Group’s town planning report.

The project would comprise 212 apartments, and could tap into the local health-worker demographic with its proximity to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital at Herston.

“The development is an elegant form of architecture promoting sustainability, and providing for and delivering much needed housing supply through an appropriate product mix and layout in an inner-city location,” the report said.

▲ The two-tower residential development sits atop a shared two-storey podium.

“The development directly responds to Brisbane City Council’s Sustainable Growth Strategy which ultimately provides an up-to-date policy expression for housing supply, diversity, affordability and choice for Brisbane. 

“It identifies housing supply needs to increase in key inner-city locations, which includes areas such as Windsor and include a range of housing types, including higher density apartments and mixed-use developments (in these locations).”

The site has an existing approval for a 12-storey healthcare, aged-care and retirement-living building. 

▲ Deep landscaping is proposed for the podium, alongside a curved and articulated facade.

But the new plan would provide a luxury car showroom over two levels with 11 storeys of residential living above in Building 1, and three storeys of above-ground carparking with nine storeys of residential living in Building 2. 

The two towers would sit above a shared landscaped podium with a design that “represents a balance between gentle curves and significant articulation”.

According to Ellivo Architects the “veranda-like outdoor rooms” defined the resident entry points to the tower foyers.

The rooftop would offer a diversity of communal spaces that would cater to active users, private entertaining as well as those seeking quieter places for respite, Ellivo documents said. 

The boutique developer also has plans for a healthcare development at Greenslopes after Bekaa Group acquired three lots at 68, 70 and 72 Hunter Street across the road from Greenslopes Private Hospital late last year. 

Tarabay developed the $35-million South City Medical at Upper Mount Gravatt.