This was published 9 years ago
Plan to turn Brisbane CBD office tower into student accommodation
By Kristian Silva
A CBD office building that was sold for $47 million in February could be converted into apartments for 700 students.
A developer has drawn up plans to turn Boeing House at 363 Adelaide Street into a mixture of about 350 studio and multishare student apartments.
A developer hopes to turn Boeing House in Adelaide Street into apartments for 700 students.Credit: Kristian Silva
Other than converting offices into residential spaces, El Camino Priority is also seeking to create lounges, study areas, a gym and retail outlets in the building.
Initial plans show few changes will be made to office tower's exterior, and none of the 700 potential occupants will have designated car spaces because an existing commercial carpark will be left untouched.
Instead, spaces for 188 bicycles have been included in the plans.
The application, submitted late last month, will be now assessed by the Brisbane City Council.
It is the second major application to be submitted to the council since it announced fee discounts for student housing developments close to the city.
Application and Queensland Urban Utilities fees will be slashed by about $13,440 per unit, meaning the Boeing House developers could save more than $4.5 million.
Colliers International was responsible for selling Boeing House in February, and capital markets director Jason Lynch said the building would be ideal for students.
"The floor-to-ceiling heights are fine as far as being converted," he said.
"All that really needs to be done is internal partition walls and some new sanitary stacks for all the bathrooms and toilets.
The site was which was initially placed on the market in 2013, after Boeing Defence Australia decided to move to a Charlotte Street building.