Dexus Beefs Up Office Space for Waterfront Brisbane

Revised plans have been filed for Dexus’ Waterfront Brisbane twin tower development, bumping it higher on the CBD skyline and delivering more than a hectare of extra floor space.

The change application outlines a raft of proposed tweaks to the design of the $2.5-billion riverfront project.

Meanwhile, construction is already under way on the Eagle Street site in the city’s golden triangle precinct, with significant works undertaken for the development’s basement and Riverwalk elements.

Under the proposed amendments, each of its north and south commercial towers would rise an additional level—taking them to 50 and 44 storeys respectively above a four-storey podium.

Overall, the project’s gross floor area would be increased from 150,834sq m to 161,717 square metres.

The 10,883sq m gain in floor space would be made up of an extra 9793sq m across the commercial tower levels and the addition of 1790sq m to the shared podium.

Dexus’ proposed increase in the yield at Waterfront Brisbane comes as the pipeline of new office space has continued to dry up in the Queensland capital.  

According to the Property Council of Australia, Brisbane has the lowest level of future supply of Australia’s major cities.

No new supply is due to come online in the CBD until 2025 when 360 Queen Street and 205 North Quay are expected to be completed. Then, it will be another few years before the first tower of Waterfront Brisbane is due for completion by 2028.

Earlier this month, Property Council Queensland executive director Jen Williams said available office space in Brisbane would likely remain limited for the foreseeable future.

“While there is some new office space in the development pipeline, 70 per cent of the stock set to be delivered in Brisbane up until 2026 is already pre-committed.”

As in all sectors, she said, the construction crisis was challenging new projects.

“Unfortunately, the reality is that it is difficult to see how new office projects will stack up financially in the current market,” she said. “As such, supply will likely remain limited for the foreseeable future.”

Other modifications proposed for Waterfront Brisbane in the change application include slightly reduced floor-to-floor heights, refinements to the facade design of the towers, enhancements to the public domain and a reconfigured central entry point to the market hall food and drink precinct from Eagle Street.

“As a result of construction work carried out to date, combined with value management processes and detailed design of the development … further modifications and refinements are now required,” the submitted documents said.

“This minor change [application] seeks to modify the existing DA to reflect far greater design resolution and refinements.”