IndustrialBen JacksonThu 22 Oct 26
Why Chris O’Keefe’s Latest Move Goes Beyond Traditional Industrial
Chris O’Keefe builds where the lines of industrial property blur.
The Time and Place executive director has spent more than two decades in commercial property, targeting opportunities that fall between established categories.
His projects have included subdividing logistics land into smaller lots with MaxCap and taking a 12.6ha Villawood site through approvals before selling it to Brookfield for about $90 million in 2022.
Now, he is backing Storage X, a self-storage brand the group aims to grow into a portfolio worth more than $1 billion.
The latest move, as reported by The Urban Developer this month, is a five-storey facility pitched for a site opposite Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane’s inner west.
On November 11, O’Keefe brings his playbook to The Urban Developer’s Industrial Leaders Forum in Melbourne.
Where industrial, logistics, workplaces and storage meet
In 2019 O’Keefe was arguing that land-banking by institutional investors was reducing the supply of small industrial lots and leaving significant unmet demand, and building a subdivision business around that gap.
In the forum’s In Conversation session, he will dig into where industrial, logistics, workplaces and storage now overlap, what the blurring of those lines means for the developers deciding what to build next, and where he sees the gaps today.
The new industrial playbook
The fireside sits alongside the forum’s developer panel. Troon Group managing director Tom McInerney leads a $700 million pipeline across industrial, commercial, retail and self-storage, while Salta Properties director of industrial development Owen Smith has led the masterplanning of the group’s Nexus precincts at Dandenong South and Mulgrave.
More speakers will be announced soon.
The forum runs across a single lunch: 12pm to 3pm at South Wharf, with networking built in.
Tickets are strictly limited.
Wednesday, November 11 2026 | South Wharf, Melbourne | 12pm to 3pm
