This property is ready to move into now! Please note this is independent editorial content written by a PropertyMash Journalist. While we try to ensure all information is as accurate as possible, please double check with the developer or real estate agent directly before making a purchasing decision. The information contained within this article may be incorrect or out of date.
Baxter Street Apartments are a recently completed apartment development located in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. As the name suggests, the apartments sit on Baxter Street, occupying a corner location. The project includes an innovative car lift for resident’s use.
The trendy inner-city Brisbane suburb of Fortitude Valley is known by day for vintage fashion, elegant restaurants and hipster art galleries. By night, the rock and club scene comes alive and the streets swell with young party-goers. Baxter Street Apartments are however far enough away from the revelry of the Brunswick Street Mall and Ann Street – where most of the clubs and bars are located – for noise not to be a problem.
Baxter Street Apartments is a new apartment building being marketed toward young professionals in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. Like many new apartment buildings springing up around Brisbane at the moment, Baxter Street features an extensive podium level with a range of facilities for residents including a pool and herb garden. A rooftop lap pool, surrounded by cabana day beds and sun lounges, is also part of an entertainment area on the podium level which should boast fantastic views of the city.
The project consists of 56 apartments; 25 one bedroom apartments and 31 two bedroom apartments. All living rooms and bedrooms have air conditioning and ceiling fans.
As mentioned before, an innovative addition to this building is a car lift rather than the traditional underground car park. Car lifts are relatively common in big cities like London, Los Angeles, New York and Shanghai and now, they have come to Brisbane! The developer indicated that 20% of apartments have their car park on the same level as their apartment, which is a particularly nice feature. Four apartments come with an actual garage attached to their apartment.
To use a car lift, all you have to do is drive into the lift, select the car park level you need to be on and hey presto, you arrive on your parking level – and sometimes your living level. We have included a video the developer has prepared to demonstrate how it will work. The one concern we have about the car lift is how well it will work in peak times of the day – will you be waiting for the car lift to get to work? It all depends how efficiently your neighbours can use the service, we suppose.
Security cameras will monitor the carpark around-the-clock and all in all we think personal safety will actually be better with the car lift rather than traditional car parking. Every apartment comes with one car park.
There is also bike storage for each apartment which is a nice feature, particularly as Brisbane is rapidly becoming a very bike-friendly city. The ground level includes three commercial tenancies.
Another defining feature of the building is the set back on the fourth level – almost another podium level, but which is used for extra large balconies for the 4th floor apartments. For example Apartment 401 is 105sq m, which is extremely large for a new two bed and two bathroom apartment. It also includes what the developer is calling a sunroom – which is a kind of second balcony which can presumably be enclosed! It is a nice point of difference. It is priced at $595,000. You do the math on the rate per sqm. It’s pretty attractive.
There are garbage chutes on each level.
All apartments have acoustic rated glass windows to help restrict the inevitable traffic noise that comes with inner city living.
At the time of writing the remaining apartments are priced from $390,000 for a one bedroom apartment, and $470,000 for a two bedroom apartment.
Baxter Street Apartments is in one of Brisbane’s hottest urban renewal suburbs, Fortitude Valley is less than one km from the Brisbane CBD.
Fortitude Valley (also known as “the Valley”), once rather seedy and shady, has in recent years become a vibrant entertainment and dining precinct. When it comes to food, the world’s your oyster in Fortitude Valley: dine in or take away. There’s Italian, Japanese, Turkish, Indian and many more restaurants around the place, including Chinatown which is about an eight minute walk from Baxter Street. On weekends, Chinatown and Brunswick Street Mall both host markets where you can find vintage goodies, food and listen to live music.
Most of the development in Fortitude Valley have been occurring to the north east of the suburb, bordering the suburbs of Teneriffe and New Farm and sitting around the major roads of Wickham St and Ann St. Baxter St however sits in a more western location so it is somewhat separated geographically from these other projects which is a distinguishing feature. This little section of the Valley has not experienced the same rapid buildup that other areas have.
Having said that, it is not exactly far from the heart of the property development action. Baxter Street Apartments is 200 metres away from the RNA Showgrounds (also known as the Brisbane Exhibition Ground), home to what Queenslanders call ‘The Ekka’. The Ekka is an annual agricultural show that displays Brisbane’s culture and produce. Go for the famous Strawberry Sundaes, and stay for the well-loved nightly show, extensive rides, and .
The RNA Showgrounds precinct is currently undergoing a $3 billion redevelopment, a 15-year project that began in 2011 and is set to rejuvenate the suburb and be the centrepiece of the area. Lend Lease, one of Australia’s largest developers, has a number of fantastic buildings underway as part of this redevelopment and is completely transforming this precinct. Having it so close to Baxter St is a definite plus.
In its glory days, Fortitude Valley was home to upmarket department stores like McWhirter’s, Myer, TC Beirne and Walton’s. They are long gone, but smaller boutique stores have popped up in every nook and cranny, offering all things vintage and fashionable. Rockabilly, mod, pinup, nautical, glam rock, steam punk, tiki, surf gear and Victorian – you just have to know where to find them. Palace Centro Cinemas, in trendy James Street, is the nearest cinema, about four minutes away from the apartments. There are 42 lifestyle, dining and fashion stores at Homemaker The Valley, three minutes drive away, including an Aldi supermarket, Harvey Norman furniture and electronics store, Trade Secret clothing store and Domayne furniture store.
Being inner city as you would expect there isn’t a great deal of green space. Closest park will be Centenary Place park, a 10 minute walk from Baxter Street.
The latest Residex State Market Report for Queensland has the median value for apartments in Fortitude Valley as $42,500 with median rental of $450. Please note these figures cover both new and old or existing apartments.
The Fortitude Valley train station is just a four-minute walk from Baxter Street Apartments and services all suburban trains including trains to Brisbane Airport, and the Gold and Sunshine Coasts. There are also multiple bus stops around the area.
The closest hospital is the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital – just five minutes drive away. Other hospitals including the Mater Private Hospital and the Lady Cilento Hospital are within 10 minutes drive, and easily accessed by public transport.
There are plenty of schools nearby, all within a six-minute drive. They include Brisbane Central State School, Brisbane Boys Grammar School, Brisbane Girls Grammar School, St Joseph’s Catholic Boys College, All Hallows Catholic Girls School, Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School and New Farm State School.
The closest university to Baxter Street Apartments is the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) at the Gardens Point campus in the CBD, and also the QUT campus at Kelvin Grove. Both are easily reached by bus and/or train. To travel to the University of Queensland’s (UQ) campus at St Lucia is about a 30 minute, bus and train journey.
A nice feature in these apartments is timber flooring in the living areas. This is common across all apartments and is not an upgrade, which is not very common that this price point.
There are two colour schemes which residents can choose from. The ‘Cool’ colour scheme uses lighter tones with white benchtops and splashback, timber laminate overhead cabinets and grey bathroom feature tiles. The different ‘Warm’ colour scheme uses darker tones with grey benchtops, black splashbacks, charcoal overhead cabinets and blue bathroom feature tiles.
The kitchens will use European appliances from the Baumatic brand. This includes a two burner cooktop, oven, microwave (this is a rarity), rangehood and a dishwasher. The benches will be made of out polished reconstituted stone and there will be either a glass or mirrored splashback.
Hansa tapware will be used throughout the kitchen, bathroom and laundry. The laundry will have a Fisher & Paykel dryer.
For 13 of the two-bedroom apartments, there will be an entertainment unit which will also have a linen section.
The developer will also be building Baxter St Apartments. Forrester Properties has been developing and building in Queensland for over 35 years and have a long and successful track record.
Prices for Baxter Street Apartments start at $390,000 for a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment and go up to $470,000 for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment.
We would love to hear your thoughts on this project.
Have you visited this project recently, or perhaps you live nearby or bought in a neighbouring building? Tell us what you love about this project, or perhaps what you don't.