Licastros Plot Lifting Brisbane Riverside Tower to 19 Storeys

Plans to upscale a tower approved for Brisbane’s Hamilton have been filed as the developer responds to “changed market conditions”. 

Amended plans were greenlit this month but the developer partnership of Frank and Joe Licastro has now filed proposals with the Brisbane City Council to again modify the development.

The project at 92 Kingsford Smith Drive was initially approved for 16 storeys and 72 apartments after the Licastro cousins acquired the DA-approved site this year and added another storey to the original plans.

The latest expansion bid comes after detailed design work and in an effort to respond to “changed market conditions and constructability”, the developers said in their application. 

Proposed are three additional storeys, taking the total to 19 storeys and 85 apartments. Carparking spaces are proposed to increase from 171 from 167.

▲ A rendering of the proposed upscaled tower at Hamilton.

The new application also seeks changes to internal floorplates, however, the rooftop garden plans are unchanged. 

The developer said it wanted to develop a “well-located and focal inner-city precinct that will contribute to the diversification and quality of high-density residential development”.

The highrise on the 1796sq m site would have a “soft curved tower form and lightweight materiality”. 

Also in Brisbane, Panettiere Development has filed its own change application for its substantial build-to-rent site fronting Longland, Stratton and Kyabra streets. 

Early plans detailing a $1.5-billion triple tower development were approved in 2024, expanding upon a previously approved project for a considerably smaller 22-storey residential tower on the site at 75 Longland Street. 

▲ A rendering of the Bureau Proberts-designed development at Newstead.

But the amalgamated site was identified by Panettiere for something much bigger and it proposed 1001 units in towers up to 33 storeys, as well as a “Little Italy” precinct. 

It was approved by the Planning and Environment Court in May of this year. 

However, the developer has now amended its project as a result of discussions with contractors. 

Panettiere said that the project’s basement design required piling that could not be completed without temporarily relocating a heritage-listed house at 22 Kyabra Street.

The proposal said that the pre-1911 home, which is planned to sit above the basement structure, cannot remain in situ during the stage one construction. 

Panettiere wants to dismantle and temporarily relocate the cottage, excluding its modern two-storey extension which is approved for demolition. The cottage would be moved to a secure storage site at 75 Longland Street and restored to its original position when surrounding structures were complete. 

The developer, Max Panettiere, said he wanted to create a Little Italy for Brisbane, to match Fortitude Valley’s Chinatown and the Greek influence in West End.