Shayher’s Bulimba Barracks Precinct Hub Waved Ahead

Billionaire John Lin’s plans to convert a former fabrication workshop on the Brisbane River into the heart of a suburban lifestyle precinct have been approved.

Greenlit by the Brisbane City Council are the Shayher Group’s plans for a boutique supermarket, retail and hospitality venues across 5391sq m of gross floor area, plus multi-use public spaces.

The Buchan architects-designed scheme proposed the adaptive reuse of a two-storey building on the 20ha site at 167 Apollo Road, Bulimba.

The sawtooth-roofed Bulimba Barracks Fabrication Workshops were built as part of war efforts in 1943 but have been vacant for decades.

The Taiwanese developer acquired the former Bulimba Army Barracks in 2019 for $63 million. It filed a masterplan for the site in 2021, comprising homes, parks and retail components.

The plans included more than 800 homes, the first of which are two midrise apartment buildings of 69 homes. Also designed by Buchan, the proposal for the homes was filed in May last year and are still before the city.

▲ An aerial view of the former Bulimba Barracks site.

Shayher Group director John Lin said the approved building would become a community hub.

“It is very important to Shayher that we complement the existing area, and we have ensured the historical integrity of the workshop building,” Lin said. 

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the new precinct “will build on our record of supporting the creation of destinations like Howard Smith Wharves, West Village and Fish Lane, which has helped shape Brisbane’s incredible lifestyle”.

▲ A rendering of the approved adaptive reuse of the fabrication workshop.

The Bulimba Barracks project was the second major developmental move for the group this month after it filed plans for the former CSIRO site on the opposite side of the river near Indooroopilly.