Home-office tower to rise
DEVELOPERS hope visiting barristers will jump at the chance to work, eat and sleep in a new office and apartment tower across the road from court.
Cairns Regional Council has approved a new kind of development for the city – a 20storey, mixed-use project incorporating offices, permanent penthouses and hotel rooms.
Spearheaded by former Papua New Guinean prime ministerial candidate Raphael Noipo, the Cairns Citi Tower was approved with 12 “caretaker” residences.
The archaic term refers to accommodation attached to offices and sold or rented as a package deal.
As Mayor Bob Manning put it at yesterday’s council meeting: “We’ve got this you-beaut legislation that’s updated all the time, but we’re still using the term caretakers.”
Artists’ impressions reveal a 62.4m tower with large and smaller office tenancies, 93 car parking spaces over five levels and a conference room.
Deputy Mayor Terry James branded the project “another great proposal for the city”.
“It’s essentially a new type of development where you can live right next door to your office,” he said.
“So barristers visiting for court cases, for example, could have an office on one level and right beside them or on the next floor, they could have their bedroom and their kitchen accommodation.
“There’s also some hotel rooms in there as well, some conference facilities and, on the upper levels, some penthouse-permanent accommodation.”
The development application states the tower would appeal to “fly-in, fly-out professionals (particularly those associated with the Cairns courts) and companies requiring satellite offices”.
“It’s innovative and time will tell.
“But I think it will be a great support for the courthouse across the road,” Cr James said.