ISPT has new plans for the Wintergarden and the old Regents Theatre site in the Brisbane CBD

A wave of retail tenants have left the Wintergarden in the Queen Street Street Mall as its owner reveals new plans for the site.

More than a decade after super fund manager ISPT demolished the historic Regent Theatre in the Brisbane CBD a brighter future may be looming.

Early plans for the site between the Queen Street Mall and Elizabeth St were for a 31-storey office tower but ISPT was always the bridesmaid and never the bride in the race to secure an anchor tenant to kickstart construction.

However, that may change with ISPT’s revamped development application for 150 Elizabeth St being approved by Brisbane City Council.

Tenants appear to have got the message with McDonald’s, Guzman Y Gomez and Soul Origin and another four leaving the Wintergarden food court along with up to 18 vacant retail tenancies on the first level.

The masterplan vision for the site includes the vacant development site fronting Elizabeth St and incorporates the existing 155 Queen Street Mall building, Hilton Hotel, the Regent Heritage building and Wintergarden Shopping Centre including the current food court area.

Part of ISPT’s vision includes new landscaped city lanes and enhanced connectivity from Elizabeth St to Queen St including the removal of the carparking ramps on Elizabeth St.

ISPT will integrate what’s left of the Regent Theatre to create “a thriving, activated” precinct.

Plans also include a 42-storey office tower and with supply of new buildings dwindling, ISPT must be looking at the site’s future with some confidence.

The NAB and Commonwealth Bank, whose current CBD leases expire in 2027, are believed to be weighing up their office options.

An artists' impression of the 150 Elizabeth St.

Department store giant Myer, which last year left the ISPT and Vicinity Centres owned Myer Centre – which has been renamed Uptown – is understood to be also considering their future in the CBD.

Retail expert professor Gary Mortimer says it’s a tough market for retailers in the CBD with the bottom end of the Queen Street Mall from Edward St to Albert St the strongest section.

“It’s important to keep revitalising CBDs, whether you do that through activation or whether you do that by bringing new flagship stores to give consumers a reason to come in,” he says.

“If you look at Howard Smith Wharves on Thursday, Friday and certainly over the weekend it’s pumping.

“But there are certainly some areas in the CBD where there’s a question mark and Uptown and the Wintergarden at the bottom end is just dead in the water.”

Village success

One of the Gold Coast’s newest retail hubs Queen Street Village is on the market and those in the know say it could fetch around $90m.

On the site of the former Gold Coast Hospital in the heart of Southport the subregional shopping centre is on a 1.9ha holding and is being sold by McVay Real Estate on behalf of boutique Sydney fund manager Chauvel Capital Investment Partners.

The 13,071sqm centre is 94 per cent occupied and anchored by a strong performing IGA and the Gold Coast’s only Dendy Cinema, alongside five mini majors, 31 specialties and three freestanding tenancies leased to Guzman y Gomez and Oporto and The Queen’s Arms Hotel.

However, it’s not all been clear sailing with the developer behind the then touted $500m masterplanned project collapsing in 2022.

Queens Street village in Southport is on the market for about $90m

Brisbane-based Nerang Street Pty Ltd called in administrators and its directors David Blanck and Alex Crooke, were at the time the managing director and financial controller of the Bowen Hills headquartered development group Property Solutions.

According to a report to creditors lodged with ASIC by Robson Cotter Insolvency Group, the company had succumbed to “a change in property market valuations, inability to meet funding arrangements and prior to that the general impact of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

But since plans for the site were revamped and Bolton Clarke is set start construction next year on a two tower vertical retirement development in the site.