Commercial Confidential: Brisbane property, leasing and sales news and gossip

More public servants are tipped to be on the move in Brisbane, with a proposed office tower on the edge of the CBD — that has been in legal limbo — to soon start construction.

An artist's impression of the lobby area at 152 Wharf St in Spring Hill.

THERE will be plenty of public servants thinking of new digs in the future with the Australian Taxation Office’s likely new Brisbane CBD base to start construction as soon as possible.

Morris Property Group general manager Brodie Lister said it was “full steam ahead” towards the start of construction of the developer’s 27-storey office tower at 152 Wharf St, Spring Hill, after the Planning and Environment Court dismissed an appeal against the project.

Commercial Confidential: Brisbane property, leasing news and gossip

David Jones considering the future of boutique Brisbane store

Commercial Confidential: Brisbane property, leasing news and gossip

It’s a bit of an open secret that the ATO will settle into the tower but Lister refused to comment other than to say the tower has been fully precommitted by an “undisclosed party” on a long-term lease.

The ATO has a number of offices in various locations including 55 Elizabeth St in the CBD and in Chermside and Upper Mount Gravatt in the suburbs. At this stage it’s not known which office will relocate to 152 Wharf St when it is built.

An artist's impression of 152 Wharf St, Spring Hill.

The ATO are not the only ones.

A couple of weeks ago Commercial Confidential broke the story that the Federal Government’s Department of Human Services will be seeking to consolidate up to four of its Brisbane CBD locations into a new office tower.

There is a rumoured 30,000sq m to 40,000sq m requirement set to hit the market with the aim of a new home to open by 2024.

Back to 152 Wharf St. The Morris Group is pretty happy that they can now get on with the job of building their office tower on the edge of Spring Hill which they say will be completed by 2023.

Lister says the tower was a direct response to Brisbane City Council’s planning foresight to accommodate the growing city through initiatives such as the Spring Hill Neighbourhood Plan.

“We congratulate the Queensland Government and Brisbane City Councils planning teams for

having the foresight to promote quality large scale developments such as this,” he said.

“It has confirmed that this development will be an immediate urban renewal catalyst for the inner Brisbane City area.”

An artist's impression of the office tower at 152 Wharf St in Spring Hill.

The pewter glass tower has 24,000sq m of net lettable area and 1200sq m floorplates and the Morris Property Group was aiming for the top level green and energy ratings.

It will have a grand lobby with a with double-height entry void, state-of-the-art end-of-trip facilities, retail tenancies on the ground floor and a civic plaza on the Turbot and wharf streets truncation.

The appeal against the council’s approval of the tower was launched by Neil Warren Peach last year backed by a Gofundme campaign.

He claimed it was an “obscene overdevelopment” in the heritage suburb that did not comply with the new Spring Hill Neighbourhood Plan.

****************************************

FROM jubilation that one of Fortitude Valley’s eyesores may have a bright new future, there are now concerns over the $180 million redevelopment of the historic Waltons building.

We hear a few angry securityholders want to oust the manager of an ASX-listed fund manager Millinium Capital which is running the project that has been envisaged as a student campus/accommodation hub.

They have called for Millinium Capital to be booted out and replaced by WA-based outfit.

We understand the big problem is the fees and expenses charged by Millinium Capital.

Millinium is the manager of the Millinium’s Alternatives Fund (MAX), which is due to acquire the Walton buildings at 240 Brunswick St and 11 Overells Lane on September 20.

Millinium struck a 12-year leasing deal with Torrens University’s parent, Nasdaq-listed Laureate International Universities, to occupy two existing buildings, which will be refurbished with a 30-storey residential tower proposed in Stage 2.

At the time of the announcement Millinium said it has secured “acceptable debt finance and received firm interest from equity investors for the first stage”.

Millinium will hold a meeting on Thursday in Sydney to address the situation.

There will be a number of Fortitude Valley luminaries, not to mention agents, who will be very interested in the result.

The Waltons department store site in Fortitude Valley.

***********************************

HOW things change.

There was a time when there was concerns over the rising number of supermarkets in the Newstead/Fortitude Valley/New Farm area were viable. Not any more.

The Coles at Merthyr Village shopping centre has been very successful and around for ages.

It was joined a few years ago by a full line Woolies at the Gasworks and large Aldi across Breakfast Creek Rd at the Homemaker Centre.

Now we hear that on the ground floor of Pointcorp’s eight-storey Fabric apartment building on the corner of Commercial Rd and Florence St in Teneriffe will have a Woolworths Metro which will open in November.

While there are also IGAs and Foodworks around and not to mention 7-Elevens in the area, with Coles long rumoured to be sniffing around the Fortitude Valley station area.

It seems the growing population will be well looked after.