[+] Aiming High: Owners Tipped to Rethink Brisbane CBD Centre

ISPT and Vicinity will be looking for a little Uptown funk as Myer strips out its flagship store at the top of Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall. While plans for the 1.27ha site remain under wraps, the shopping centre is ripe for redevelopment of its underutilised air space, and planning overlays could enable up to 30 storeys on the site fronting the mall. The department store’s final day of trading was on Monday in its five-floor 28,000sq m tenancy, and it will now spend the next four to six weeks bumping out. The newly rebranded Uptown shopping centre demarcates a new chapter for the retail landlord as it hunts for a new tenant for what is the CBD’s biggest retail space. Earlier this year there were rumours that Griffith University was investigating moving its proposed $80-million city campus development into the space after it called for expressions of interest late last year. The new campus was due to open in 2026, but The Urban Developer understands the university is not pursuing an Uptown tenancy for its students. Joint owners Vicinity Centres and superannuation fund ISPT may choose to redevelop the 1.27ha site at the top of the pedestrianised mall, which incorporates the facades of four historic buildings. ▲ The landmark Brisbane centre is at the top end of the Queen Street Mall. An industry insider suggested that a wholesale demolition job was not on the cards. “The underground carpark is the most lucrative part of that shopping centre. If they demolished it they would never be able to get the same number of car parks in there with current planning constraints,” he said. “Instead of demolishing it and spending $1 billion to create something new, they will likely spend $500 million to reimagine it.” The Urban Developer contacted both Vicinity and ISPT, but neither would comment on redevelopment plans. Across the river Vicinity’s $750-million Buranda Village redevelopment was greenlit earlier this year. The mixed-use precinct plans include retail and dining, 620 apartments and 50,000sq m of commercial space. Further south its $900-million plans for build-to-rent and residential shoptop housing in joint venture with Salta at Victoria Gardens are making progress. ▲ A view of the centre’s ever-popular food court. According to rebranded Uptown owners ISPT and Vicinity Centres, the new name reflected the brand and market position, as well as its physical location at the top of the mall. In a statement a spokesperson said the plans for the development of the centre were “still in the works … the new name and brand is the first step in the reimagining of the iconic site’s exciting future”. Vicinity Centres’ regional general manager Daniel Sutton said the shopping centre would be “pivotal part of the modern identity of Brisbane’s CBD”. “The centre’s most vibrant days are ahead with Uptown set to create lasting memories and a home for the best of Brisbane.” ISPT regional asset manager Leah Mienert said they “look forward to releasing our plan that will shape the heart of Brisbane’s CBD, and be worth going to town for”. Speaking at The Urban Developer’s retail summit recently LocationIQ director Gavin Duane said institutional investors favoured build-to-rent developments above retail assets. ▲ The Myer Centre under construction in 1980 and the centre atrium. “One of the great landscape changes for centres is they’re not just retail anymore, there’s other components such as medical, build-to-rent, housing,” he said. “I think we’re getting to the stage where we’re realising our centres can’t keep expanding forever and a day, and using those air rights are much more important. “And I think the institutions like the build-to-rent because they can control what’s above their assets, they can control their air rights.” Once the height of experience shopping in Brisbane, the Myer Centre has been ravaged by the pandemic, significant competition from Queens Plaza at the other end of the mall, and there is now another high-end shopping precinct snapping at its heels. Nearby in the Brisbane CBD, a new major luxury shopping precinct is nearing completion at the $3.6-billion riverfront Queen's Wharf integrated casino mega-project. Its three-storey, 6000sq m T Galleria Emporium was due to open last year but construction delays due to record rainfall pushed it back until later this year. Among almost 40,000sq m of retail, food and entertainment space planned for the development, it is being delivered as part of a deal struck between global retail giant DFS—part of the Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton Group—and Destination Brisbane Consortium, the joint-venture behind Queen’s Wharf. According to most recent Australia Bureau of Statistics data retail trade was down 0.2 per cent month-on-month in June, and department store spending was down 5 per cent. Equally monthly retail turnover in Queensland was down 0.7 per cent. You are currently experiencing The Urban Developer Plus (TUD+), our premium membership for property professionals. Click here to learn more.

[+] Aiming High: Owners Tipped to Rethink Brisbane CBD Centre

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