Knight Frank Qld MD Ben McGrath has left the company leaving two major agencies in Brisbane without a managing director

The managing director of a leading commercial property agency has stepped down and there is speculation on where he will end up.

AFTER five years as Knight Frank managing director, Queensland and senior director, institutional sales Ben McGrath has left the Blue tower.

McGrath packed up and left Knight Frank’s Brisbane head office at 12 Creek St after telling staff he had no immediate plans for the future.

Commercial Confidential: All the latest Brisbane property news, gossip, leasing and sales information

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

Commercial Confidential: Brisbane property, leasing news and gossip

Ben McGrath

McGrath spent 16 years at JLL in the institutional office and industrial sales side of the business including five years in China. He also spent a little over a year with McVay Real Estate.

With Glen Wright leaving as managing director of Cushman & Wakefield Queensland business there is more than a bit of speculation, that McGrath, with all his managerial and big office sale experience will be a be a good fit for the agency.

We will have to see.

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MEANWHILE, Knight Frank’s Brisbane office leasing team is expanding in a vote of

confidence in the strength of the city’s commercial market in both the CBD and fringe.

Three agents have joined the team — Matt O’ Brien (ex-Elders Commercial); Sebastian Fahey (ex-Knight Frank on the Gold Coast), Daniel Byrne (ex-Savills)

Matt O'Brien

O’Brien and Fahey will cover office leasing in Brisbane’s fringe, joining Knight Frank Partner Office Leasing Andrew Carlton.

Byrne will cover Brisbane’s CBD market, working alongside Knight Frank Partners and Joint Heads of Office Leasing Mark McCann and Campbell Tait.

McCann said Knight Frank’s Brisbane office leasing team was led by three senior partners, and the expansion had focused on recruiting agents with experience of up to 10 years.

“The three new appointments bring a younger, energetic vibe to the team, but have great experience and well-established networks, specialising in high volumes of lease transactions,” he said.

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TWO of Queensland’s top regional architecture firms have joined forces.

Sunshine Coast’s Ken Down Architects (KDA) merged with Toowoomba-based Aspect to provide a comprehensive suite of services ranging from architectural and interior design through to start-to-finish project management.

The merger of the award-winning firms combines 70 years of operation between KDA, founded by architect Ken Down, and Aspect, headed by managing director of the group Graham Secombe.

Over time the merged entity will be called Aspect.

Down says the ethos and services offered by each firm were highly compatible and the merger would create valuable synergies for clients and staff alike.

“It’s exciting to be pooling our collective knowledge and experience to capitalise on the diversity of larger scale project work available across Queensland and interstate,” he says.

Secombe says he is intent on growing the Sunshine Coast team.

“One of the undeniable benefits for the Sunshine Coast is that to assist with servicing the many projects needed to sustain our insatiable appetite for growth, the group has taken the approach of moving high level professional people to the region,” Mr Secombe said.

“With projects on the go from Cairns to Hobart, our combined team of designers and project managers are truly excited about where this new chapter might now take them.”

The collective is now the largest regionally based professionally consultancy team in Queensland.

Graham Secombe and Ken Down whose architectural firms have merged.