Mirvac’s $670m Brisbane Office Tower Wins Approval

Mirvac’s plans for a $670-million commercial tower in Brisbane’s CBD have won approval from the Brisbane City Council. 

The Blight Rayner-designed tower would rise to 37 storeys on the 8900sq m amalgamated site on Turbot Street, one of the largest sites in the city’s CBD.

The heritage-listed Neo Georgian dental school will be retained and integrated into the development, while two commercial buildings would be demolished to make way for the office building.

Surrounded by parkland and overlooking the proposed Brisbane Live Olympic venue, the site will be connected to the Cross River Rail station and ongoing redevelopment of the Roma Street precinct. 

The mixed-use commercial development would provide 66,000sq m of office space across large floorplates. It would also include 6000sq m of open space, 169 car parks and 745 bicycle parking bays. 

▲ The development at 200 Turbot Street will tower above surrounding parkland and one of Brisbane's oldest buildings, the Mill, with plans to integrate the heritage-listed former dental school into the development.

It's a glowing endorsement for Brisbane's resurgent office market.

According to the ASX-listed company’s property compendium, office makes up 50 per cent of its assets nationally with a book value of $8.12 billion.

Speaking at the Green Building Council of Australia’s Transform conference last week, Mirvac chief executive Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz said the office remained an important part of our working lives. 

“We now know we can run major banks, insurance and even development from the spare bedroom of our house … but I think we also understand how much is missing.

“Over the long arc of history agglomerating people and ideas, that’s the generating of wealth in our economies.”

Lloyd-Hurwitz said healthy buildings with touchless technologies embedded would thrive in the post-pandemic office landscape.

She said the move to remote work life had democratised workplaces but the office remained crucial as a “spark” for collaboration and networking. 

Latest Property Council data shows Brisbane’s office market is rebounding following rolling lockdowns. Office vacancy rates were at 15.4 per cent in February this year.

At the end of 2020 the Queensland government announced Mirvac had been selected as the developer of the former UQ Dental School site, which would create about 360 jobs. 

The developer topped out on its Heritage Lanes development at 80 Ann Street in Brisbane late last year with practical completion due in the second half of 2022. 

The 35-storey premium office tower has secured Suncorp as its anchor tenant and the building’s tenant pre-leasing is at 93 per cent.