Revealed: The 15 people who have changed Brisbane’s skyline in 2022
From the son of a poor street hawker to a former Olympian, a trained rescue diver and migrant families who’ve made good, we look at 15 people behind some of the biggest projects in Brisbane.
Southeast
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The construction cranes have been busy over Brisbane this year despite the threat of a global downturn, with housing, sporting and commercial projects galore.
From a new home for the Lions AFL women’s team to luxury unit towers, housing estates and office blocks, developers have been busy.
We take a look at 15 people and family companies driving the boom.
They range from a former Olympic swimmer to a weekend rescue diver, the offspring of penniless migrants and the son of a Chinese street hawker.
SKYE, WEST END TOWERS, LA STORIA
Pedro Pikos
The Pikos Group managing director and his brother Michael set up the biggest private construction firm in the Northern Territory after graduating from Darwin High School.
They arrived in the Top End after grandfather Petros Mihailou emigrated in 1927 from Kalymnos, a small Greek island.
He started a construction company before Pedro, Michael and another brother, Tony, set up their own business in 1995.
They moved to Brisbane in 2003, setting up headquarters in Fortitude Valley and have built well over $500 million in projects.
Work will start next month on Pedro Pikos’ latest project, Skye apartments at the top of the Kangaroo Point cliffs.
He billed it “Brisbane’s best building’’, featuring stone and wood finishes, Swiss appliances and a 1000m public skydeck with a bar, restaurant and pool 15 floors above one of highest spots in the city.
About $200 million in unit sales have already been inked.
Over at 24 Ferry Rd in West End, Pikos Group gained approval in February for a striking 12-storey, 38-unit tower topped by a stunning rooftop area with pool and sweeping river views.
Sales started this year at La Storia, the first tower in a controversial three-building project at 108 Lambert Rd, Kangaroo Point.
BULIMBA BARRACKS
John (Chen-hai) Lin
Billionaire Taiwanese developer John Lin, one of Asia’s richest people, is poised to transform the inner-east Bulimba area after Council recently approved his Shayher Group’s controversial Bulimba Barracks project.
The 20.73ha ex-Department of Defence site is one of the biggest riverfront blocks ever to come on the market.
Mr Lin planned to turn the Bulimba site into a luxury estate with 855 homes, including townhouses, with a riverfront public park and protection for the site’s heritage barracks.
He joined the billionaire’s club in 2019 after a three-decade career in property development and is now worth $2.5 billion, according to Forbes.
Shayher, which is connected to Taiwanese apartment developer Pau Jar Group, set up in Brisbane in 1999.
One of his pet projects has been the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science, which he set up two years ago at Taiwan’s National Tsing Hua University.
He has two children, including a son studying at a Brisbane university.
Earlier this month Shayher was revealed to be conducting due diligence on a $400 million deal to buy Milton Green office park, overlooking the river in the inner-west and next to Shayher’s Kings Row office complex.
Shayher also has its eyes on Indooroopilly after paying $20 million for a 1.5ha former sugar research station on Meiers Rd in September.
Shayher previously developed a nearby 1.04ha Long Pocket Estate riverfront project, part of a 7.2ha site Mr Lin bought from the CSIRO for $25.3 million.
That development is now in its fourth stage despite opposition from residents.
TOOWONG, EAST BRISBANE, INDOOROOPILLY TOWERS
Brook Monahan
Mr Monahan is the man behind a blizzard of luxury unit projects in Brisbane’s westside and inner-east.
Although only 45, the father of four made his fortune himself despite having no formal qualifications in the building industry and starting out in agribusiness.
He even had a stint mustering cattle in far north Queensland and set up a chain of butcher shops and a meat company before founding Mosaic in 2004 with mate Dave Handley.
Since then he has overseen more than 50 completed projects worth more than $1.3 billion.
Mr Monahan made his start in property development subdividing suburban lots in the early 2000s, before focusing on a mixture of affordable and luxury apartments.
The most controversial has been 28 Lissner St in Toowong, which will go ahead after neighbours dropped a court challenge last month.
They had argued the 15-level tower should never have been built as it was double the allowable height.
Over in East Brisbane, The Sinclair was finished earlier this year and quickly sold out, with some units already re-sold for a profit.
A DA was lodged earlier this year for an eight-level unit project less than 1km from the Sinclair.
Mosaic, which now employs 120 people in southeast Queensland, has ambitions to build and manage another $1 billion in residential projects by 2025.
Other recent projects include The Patterson in riverfront Archer St, Toowong. Its 66 units spread over 12 levels have already sold out.
The Henry on Clarence Rd, Indooroopilly has also sold out, as has The Kensington on Sylvan Rd, Toowong. Its 63 units should be completed late this year.
And $70 million in sales in just six weeks saw construction brought forward for The Manning on Railway Tce in Milton’s Park Road precinct.
The $110m project will have 113 units over 21 levels, with work now due to start in early 2023.
KENMORE VILLAGE
Winston Jen
Mr Jen’s father Denis led such a fascinating life he eventually sat down to write an autobiography, A Thousand Ounces of Gold.
Orphaned as a toddler, he worked as a solicitor in Shanghai just after World War II before fleeing the communist uprising and heading for Taiwan.
Mr Jen pioneered the country’s clothing export industry, selling to leading US brands and even Myer.
At one time he also held the Parker Pen franchise in China before expanding into Singapore and Taiwan.
He arrived in Queensland in the 1980s and set up Jen Properties, passing the business on to son Winston.
After Mr Jen passed away his son Winston took control of the family company, which now owns seven shopping centres including Kenmore Village.
In October last year Jen Properties announced the biggest changes to Kenmore Village in years, with the north mall to be replaced and new floor area created underneath the Brisbane City Council library.
Within the western end of the south mall a stand-alone building will go up in the southwest corner of the site.
The project was approved in March.
Jen Properties also owns two childcare centres, in Kenmore and Chapel Hill.
ORA UNIT TOWER
Justin Ham
Justin Ham is responsible for several major developments in Wynnum, investing $74 million in key projects since 2013 including a cinema and a revamp of the Wynnum Health Hub.
Mr Ham, 40, a father of three, was born and bred in Bulimba and is the fourth generation to run the family accounting firm, HamBros, which was started by his great grandfather in 1927.
It later morphed into property ownership and other business interests.
He started working at the firm when he was just 14.
In May, HamBros submitted a DA for a $130 million, 27-storey, 275-apartment tower at 74 Charlotte St, Wynnum.
The proposal, called Ora, would include six penthouses, 463 carpark spaces, 5600sq m of retail and office space, a rooftop pool as well as a pool on level five, restaurant, gym and function room.
Work would not start until at least mid-2023, however, after his company asked for more time to lodge specialist reports.
SOUTH/CITY/SQ, ARBOR PARK, STORY HOUSE
Nando Pellicano
The Pellicano Group managing director is descended from a stonemason, Rocco Pellicano, who emigrated from Calabria in Italy in 1951 and took up work as a bricklayer.
From those humble beginnings the family set up the Pellicano Group, which set up in Queensland in the early 2000s and now has a HQ in Fortitude Valley.
Since 2015 they have dramatically reshaped the Woolloongabba skyline with their South/City/SQ six-tower, $700 million unit project on a 2ha site fronting Logan Rd.
Late last year Pellicano Group submitted plans for another stage, the 15-level Hillyard House, where construction started last month.
The 152 units would also come with ground floor retail, rooftop pool, yoga lawn and lounge, as well as a green space called The Secret Garden.
South/City/SQ now has 570 apartments across four completed residential towers and 15,000 sqm of retail including Woolworths, Reading Cinema’s Angelika Film Centre, Priceline, restaurants and a European-inspired Market Hall.
Pellicano Group last week revealed plans for the Story House at Kangaroo Point, an 86-unit, eight-level tower also with rooftop pool, yoga lawn and lounge.
The company began sales this year for a $37 million townhouse community, Arbor Park, in Wynnum West.
PORTSIDE WHARF
Lee Butterworth
Mr Butterworth, Brookfield Residential Properties’ regional director, is in charge of its residential business unit in Australia.
A St Joseph’s Nudgee Old Collegian, he graduated from QUT with a degree in construction management.
He joined Multiplex in 1996 and has been with what is now Brookfield Residential Properties for 18 years.
His latest project, the recently announced $20 million revamp of riverfront Portside Wharf, is a great fit as Mr Butterworth has a commercial boat licence and is a qualified rescue diver.
He said the upgrade was the first since the dining and residential precinct opened 16 years ago.
Work would start later this year and be finished by December, 2023.
An extended entry plaza and main street and more shading and landscaping will be added to expand outdoor dining options.
Last year Brookfield launched the latest stage of the $1.3 billion community, with a 19-level resort-style $141 million apartment tower earmarked for the precinct’s last available absolute riverfront site.
The tower will be the ninth developed at Portside by Brookfield, which has already delivered over 850 luxury riverside apartments in the dining and shopping precinct.
WEST END, SOUTH BRISBANE TOWERS
Tim Forrester
The Aria Property Group boss’ father, Rod, founded FKP Property Group with brother Des in 1987.
Rod and his wife Jan had earlier fallen in love with Queensland and settled on the Sunshine Coast following an around-Australia caravan trip.
From that beginning living in a van park they forged a property leader, before helping son Tim start Aria in 2003.
Tim had learned the ropes while still in high school labouring on construction sites before going into partnership with two friends.
The company’s most recent three completed developments were awarded Best Development in Australia for the past three consecutive years.
But some projects have got some longtime West End residents off-side including the most recent, a massive three-tower, multistage unit tower on the site of the former Stefan hairdressing empire HQ.
That project was so big part of the site would become a paid carpark until tower 1 was completed.
In May it was announced Aria had scrapped plans for a $300 million West End tower billed as the world’s greenest building after a court challenge by West End Community Association.
But the project could be back on the drawing board after a Planning and Environment Court ruling, which meant WECA would now be unlikely to succeed with its appeal.
Late last month, Aria also applied to build three, 12-level towers with ground floor retail on Merivale St.
One of the company’s best loved projects in the area was the re-imagining of Fish Lane.
An AFL tragic, Mr Forrester is a director of the Brisbane Lion’s board and has supported the club since childhood, mentoring players and offering them work experience.
KEPERRA HOUSING ESTATE, NEWSTEAD TOWER
Cameron Leggatt
After completing the $700 million Hamilton Reach masterplanned community last year, Frasers Property Australia is poised to start two new landmark projects.
It paid about $16.5m for a 3016 sqm carpark on the corner of Chester and Morse streets in Newstead, with work starting this year on a units/terrace homes project which would include an urban plaza.
After a marathon eight months of talks with Council, Frasers lodged a DA in February.
Community consultation was held in June and July, with Council approval still pending.
In August, Frasers applied to break up a 750-home estate on the site of the Keperra quarry into four stages.
The northeastern corner would be used for medium density dwellings and the townhouse component fronting Settlement Rd would be scaled back.
The quarry will remain in operation on the southern portion of the site while Precinct A is developed.
And in January it was reported Frasers had bought a 250ha undeveloped land parcel at New Beith in Logan, ahead of a major subdivision.
Executive general manager, development, Cameron Leggatt, who joined the company in 2010, heads up its Queensland operations.
A University of Queensland graduate, he has 20 years’ industry experience.
GREAT WESTERN SHOPPING CENTRE, MONARCH RESIDENCES, YEERONGPILLY GREEN
Don O’Rorke
The Consolidated Properties Group (CPG) founder is one of the best known developers in Brisbane.
Mr O’Rorke last month married Katie McMillan at the couple’s impressive Hampton Farm home in Brookfield, in front of their blended family of nine children.
A keen surfer and proud Brisbane Boys’ College Old Collegian, he took up the demanding role of BBC Council Chair in June last year.
CPG often collaborates on projects with Mr O’Rorke’s old school chum Scott Hutchinson, who heads up construction firm “Hutchies’’.
CPG’s biggest current project is Monarch Residences, a two-tower unit project that will transform the abandoned ABC studios clifftop site in Toowong.
Work is well under way, with many units already sold.
Once the project was finished, cyclists and pedestrians could travel along the riverfront Bicentennial Bikeway, Brisbane’s busiest with more than one million trips per year, all the way from the CBD to adjacent Archer St in Toowong.
When Council’s green bridge was completed, they would be able to cross the river at the Monarch site, landing in West End.
In October, CPG and Melbourne-based investment house CVS Lane Capital Partners announced they would spend $22 million on a “modern makeover” of their Great Western Super Centre in Keperra in Brisbane’s west, including store expansions and upgrades for Aldi supermarket, BCF and Anytime Fitness.
Another city-shaping project Mr O’Rorke’s company has been involved with is Yeerongpilly Green in Brisbane’s southside.
Stage 1 of the $850 million multistage residential village has sold out, with construction well advanced on 83 units, 10 terrace homes, a Woolworths, dining precinct, offices and retail outlets.
CBD TOWER, ASCOT GREEN, WATERFRONT NEWSTEAD, TOOMBUL SHOPPING CENTRE
Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz
Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz announced last month that she would step down next June after a decade as CEO at Mirvac, one of Australia’s biggest ASX-listed developers, and a 29-year career which started as a researcher at commercial real estate agents Knight Frank.
But the urban geography graduate is one of the few women to make it to the very top in the development industry.
Earlier this year, Mirvac announced it would never reopen Toombul Shopping Centre due to mould damage from the February floods.
And last month, Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz confirmed to local MP Leanne Linard that work on replacing the centre had been pushed back to allow extensive community feedback, which opened last week.
She confirmed some form of retail and public green space would be included.
In September, Mirvac also revealed it would fast-track construction of the latest, $135m stage of Australia’s first racecourse community, Ascot Green.
Work on the 14-storey Charlton House – a partnership with Eagle Farm Racecourse owner Brisbane Racing Club – began just three months after its launch.
More than $70 million worth of apartments has already sold, mostly to local buyers.
Also in September, Mirvac announced it had brought forward plans for the second stage of its Sky Precinct after the success of stage one, Quay Waterfront Newstead, which is nearing sellout with $155 million in sales.
Quay is under construction and due for completion in 2024.
And Mirvac last year won approval for a $670 million development next to the old dental school building in the CBD, made famous in ABC TV crime drama Harrow.
AFLW STADIUM, SPRINGFIELD RISE
Maha, Raynuha Sinnathamby
The Springfield City Group is one of the true visionaries of the Queensland property industry and not content to build just another housing estate.
Over the years the civil engineer’s mini-city has become home to a Mater hospital, headquarters for some major businesses, a university campus, IT hub and even has its own train line.
It all started in 1992 when he and business partner Bob Sharpless bought a 2860ha block near Ipswich for $7.9 million.
Born in a small Malaysian village, of Sri Lankan descent, his Hindu heritage is evident in local names such as Mahatma Gandhi Bridge.
He once went off to an Indian Ashram to purify himself — not a common activity for a developer, although he does love playing golf at Brookwater.
He has three daughters and a son, Naren, with wife Yoga, whom he married in 1968.
For the past 10 years his daughter Raynuha, a property lawyer and Brisbane Girls’ Grammar School graduate, has been responsible for day-to-day operations.
She aimed to make Australia’s largest masterplanned community its first zero net emissions city by 2038.
Work was completed last month on the $70 million Brighton Homes Arena, the new home for the Brisbane Lions women’s AFL team.
It might also host Brisbane Lions men’s games while the Gabba is redeveloped for the 2032 Olympics.
It will also serve as a venue for the Games modern pentathlon events.
One of the latest housing estates currently being developed in the area is Lendlease’s Springfield Rise estate, which has been in the works since 2015.
Lendlease submitted a new DA in August for the partially completed Village 13.
THE LANES
David Pradella
In March Mr Pradella unveiled The Lanes, a 138 luxury apartment project which will be the final stage of Pradella Property Ventures’ $1 billion Riverside West End masterplanned community.
Designed by bureau^proberts, the three-tower, 12-level development features a curved facade with landscaped sky-bridges on every second level.
Mr Pradella has been influential in reshaping Brisbane’s inner city with projects including the five-building Parklands development at Roma Street, an innovative project at that time.
It was a milestone for the family’s property interests, which began in 1959 when Mr Pradella’s father Cesare began making prefabricated houses.
David and his brother Kim launched The Parklands in 2003.
Another brother, Silvio, is the man behind Multiplex.
WEST END, DUTTON PARK, SOUTH BRISBANE UNITS
Mark Stockwell
Managing director of the family business started by his parents in 1952, Mr Stockwell’s company has launched numerous retail and residential projects across southeast Queensland.
His company also handles commercial and industrial projects and manages property funds.
The inaugural chairman of Trade and Investment Queensland, he is most widely known outside property circles as an Olympic swimmer.
The 58-year-old won three medals at the 1984 Games and in May narrowly lost a bid to become the new Australian Olympic Committee head.
His American-born wife Tracey, chairman of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, was also a champion swimmer and won three Olympic gold medals.
In July, the company revealed its latest Brisbane project, Croft apartments on Fish Lane, in South Brisbane, had sold out. It is now under construction.
Stanford & Oxford, another recent project featuring 82 units and a pool spread across two buildings in Dutton Park, has also sold out.
Stockwell Development Group has applied to build 78 units in a single, nine-level tower at the corner of Bailey and Kurilpa streets in West End and has started taking registrations of interest from potential buyers.
TOOWONG VILLAGE, OTHER SHOPPING CENTRES
Gordon Fu, son Jack Lin
Mr Fu, reputedly the son of a humble street hawker, is now worth about $1.8 billion thanks to his YFG Property Group.
YFG is the largest private owner of shopping centres in Australia, with 15 in the Greater Brisbane area and 20 in southeast Queensland.
Its Toowong Village centre has been a hive of activity this year, with new travelators and lifts installed and a raft of new retailers opening, or about to open, since David Jones moved out.
They include Woolworths, TK Maxx and an Asian grocer.
Two years ago Mr Fu bought the last stakes in Mt Ommaney Shopping Centre and added a Cotton On mega tenancy.
He and his son-in-law Jack Lin work together closely and their companies, although separate, share ownership of some centres.
Mr Fu, who came to Australia in 1992, started his working life painting cinema posters.
His entrepreneurial career began in the construction industry and he also established a fast-food firm called Sun Smile Chicken.
STAFFORD TAVERN
Paul Xu
Very little is known about the Sun Hotels Group director despite his busy career buying, selling and renovating pubs.
His latest move was a DA to radically upgrade the popular Stafford Tavern, lodged only last week.
The two-stage, massive upgrade of the northside watering hole includes 43-room, four-star motel.
Public submissions on the plans, which also including a new gaming lounge with 50 pokies, close on December 7.
Mr Xu bought Arundel Tavern in July. His Sun group bought Helensvale Tavern in 2012 for $7.7m and he also owns a tavern in Laidley.
Queensland Hotel Investment, to which he is linked, bought Saltwater Creek Hotel in 2018.
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