Triguboff’s $130m Brisbane City Deal Years in Making

Almost 10 years after unveiling the city’s tallest tower, apartment king Harry Triguboff has dipped his toes into Brisbane’s property market once more. 

The 90-year-old Meriton managing director (pictured below) has acquired The Gardens Apartments on a prime 5485sq m at Alice Street, overlooking the city’s Botanical Gardens. 

The developer reportedly splashed more than $130 million on the property after a prolonged negotiation with owners to sell and amalgamate the asset at 204 Alice Street. 

The 17-storey tower, built in 1979, will likely make way for one of Meriton’s iconic towers. 

Clayfield-based Mane Property Group sales director James Buckley and his team brokered the deal, which he said was about 2.5 years in the making. 

“There were 87 owners across 107 units and with our current laws we needed 100 per cent of the unit owners to agree to the sale,” Buckley said. 

“From what we understand it is the largest amalgamation in terms of the number of owners that needed to be pulled together and we have done this with a total sales team of five.

“There were a few agencies trying to get in and sell the site, everyone knew that it was an excellent site but we were the only ones that were willing to put in the work so that the owners could realise the value there.”

▲ Australia's largest apartment developer Meriton is confident about the residential property market in the years ahead.

Buckley said it was a risk to take on the project with the 100 per cent ownership laws in Queensland, which have now been pulled back to 75 per cent in line with other states.  

“We could have done all that work and not earned a single dollar but we are very fortunate to have a team that works very closely together, a bit of luck went our way and we are just stoked for the owners of the building.”

Triguboff, reportedly worth $15.5 billion, has developed more than 70,000 apartments across the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney. And he’s a big advocate for the housing typology into the future. 

The property mogul was recently vocal on the need for more apartment projects in Australia in light of the 650,000 migrants forecast to enter Australia in the next two years. He said apartments could add to the housing supply stocks faster than any other type of housing.