Brisbane Airport expansion: Could Walmart, eBay and Amazon be coming to town?

Brisbane Airport is hoping some of the world’s most ‘iconic’ companies will establish their massive campus-style bases here. These are the four key selling points to lure them in.

MAJOR international employers are being courted to set up their massive “campus-style” bases in Brisbane.

Brisbane Airport has the rare combination that big names like Walmart, eBay and Amazon need for their regional or Southern Hemisphere operations — huge amounts of commercial space, reliable power, bulk data connections and easy access to flights, BNE property executive general manager Scott Douglas says.

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But the biggest pull is having a great city to live in, something where Brisbane is backing itself, he says, that could help snag an “iconic employment generator” like Microsoft, eBay, Google, Amazon or Walmart.

Future Aviation, a two-week series launching today in partnership with Brisbane Airport, Tourism & Events Queensland, Brisbane City Council and PwC, will highlight the opportunities of the new runway which opens in the middle of next year.

“What we’ve got is unique in having large parcels of land at a gateway so close to the city,” Mr Douglas said.

“We identified some of the large sites for some of the campus type developments that are in America and the UK with some of those big catalyst projects, the likes of Facebook and Google and Microsoft.

“That’s what we’re going to try to introduce to Brisbane and really play on the gateway to Asia and America because our airport operates 24-7, it’s the largest airport by land mass and will have one of the highest capacities when the runway opens.

“You’ve got the ability to attract retailers that need that those key hubs.”

The new Brisbane Airport runway will open up new employment and business opportunities in Queensland.

The airport also boosts three 110kV power supplies and “gold standard” data lines supplying the cloud data centres and airport operations, Mr Douglas said.

“There’s no reason why many of those businesses need to be located in Melbourne or Sydney.

“If you look around the globe, there are those key institutions located in areas where they have access to service.

“There’s no deal done but we will be out trying to generate some of the leads with those international businesses that become catalytic to bringing other retailers here and creating that community.”

He said companies like Amazon, eBay and Walmart operated from large, “campus-style” sites.

“They need a home eventually in the southern hemisphere,” Mr Douglas said.

“They are the sort of businesses that we can locate here with the plane regulations, with 24-7 operations, with the uninterrupted power supply and the data capabilities that we have.

“They are the perfect types of discussions to have.

“You can get in here and then pretty much get anywhere in the country.

“And we’ve made it attractive from the point of view of the cost of living.

“If you brought 30,000 people into a campus-style development, the cost of living is competitive in Brisbane.

“They are the types of things that we’re going to go out and look for.”