Brutalist Brisbane Tower Secures Whole-Building Tenant

In a whole-of-building leasing deal, a landmark 1970s brutalist Brisbane office tower is to be re-lifed as the headquarters for the newly established Queensland Fire Department.

The former TAB building at 240 Sandgate Road, Albion, in the city’s inner north-east, is undergoing major refurbishment works to enable its adaptive reuse as a modern workplace.

As its largest suburban lease commitment to date, the 10-year deal is a coup for the asset’s owner, private equity group Alceon Queensland.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, which in June will become the Queensland Fire Department, will occupy the entire 10,008sq m of the building and its surrounding 11,345sq m parcel of land.

The tenant was introduced by Mitch Connell of Aegis Property Group.

More than 500 QFES staff will relocate to the building on completion of its upcycling and transformation. Architects Nettletontribe and construction contractor Graystone have been tapped to deliver the project.

The ability to consolidate business operations within a newly refurbished 5-star NABERS inner-city office building with onsite parking and close to transport aligned with the tenant’s occupancy strategy.

Alceon Queensland executive director Todd Pepper said the deal reinforced the group’s strategic investment foresight in the adaptive reuse of redundant or vacant city fringe and suburban office buildings for social infrastructure purposes.

“Alceon Queensland has been developing suburban office buildings since its inception in 2008, under the thesis that energy-efficient, A-grade office buildings in suburban locations, at the nexus of major arterial thoroughfares and with access to carparking and public transport will always have demand in a growing catchment,” Pepper said.

In March, 2021, Alceon acquired the landmark former TAB building that sits on a prominent 1.13ha site as part of its plans to create a $200-million mixed-use precinct called Hudson Commons.

▲ Renders of the refurbishment of the former TAB building at Albion.

“The former TAB building provided a unique opportunity to reposition the asset into the fabric of Brisbane social infrastructure,” Pepper said.

As well as the building’s refurbishment, Alceon’s original blueprint aimed to establish a new heart for the Albion urban renewal precinct and included a new 7-storey office building, 15-storey residential tower, ground-level retail, a publicly accessible plaza and four basement carparking levels.

Rising construction costs have since rendered the mixed-use scheme unfeasible but Alceon has continued its refurbishment strategy for the former TAB building.

“Alceon Queensland has completed in excess of 100,000sq m of greenfield office development and adaptive reuse of redundant or vacant office buildings in the suburbs and fringe and accordingly was comfortable that there was sufficient demand in the inner-northern corridor of Brisbane for a newly refurbished commercial office building credentialed with a 5 star NABERS rating and other ESG benefits,” Pepper said.

However, he said, the centre-zoned holding was “significantly under-developed” with the existing building accounting for only 20 to 25 per cent site coverage.

About 8000sq m of surplus land remained that could be developed to between 15 and 20 storeys “as of right” for a multitude of uses.

Alceon Queensland has most recently completed TAFE Queensland’s new 7600 sq m Robina campus and Wise Medical’s adjacent 2000sq m stand-alone emergency medical facility as well as two new buildings at 385-389 Macarthur Avenue within Brisbane’s riverfront Northshore Hamilton precinct, the site chosen for the main Athletes’ Village for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.