Archerfield Airport’s logistics estate takes off

Only 25 years into a 99-year lease, the Bird family’s Archerfield Airport has long-term plans to become an industrial hub.

The Bird family continues to fly high, with the first stage of an industrial estate at Archerfield Airport 35 per cent committed.

On a 29ha site next to the airport, Transition-Archerfield Logistics Estate, 11km west of the Brisbane CBD, is designed and purpose-built by the Bird family’s Archerfield Airport.

The family think long term and have controlled Brisbane’s second airport since patriarch Gavin Bird bought the 99-year Archerfield Airport lease when the Commonwealth Government privatised 22 airports around the country in 1998.

Gavin remains executive managing director of AAC, and his sons Lachlan and Duncan are second generation directors.

Both Lachlan and Duncan have young children and will likely make up the third generation of Birds at Archerfield.

“I keep saying to the old man and the rest of the family that we have a significant lease tail, and we need to develop. My father and mother keep saying don’t worry about it, son, you won’t be around to see it anyway,” Lachlan jokes.

He said while their core business is the 257ha airport, the excess land next to the runways was ideal for an industrial estate.

“Transition Estate offers a unique infill opportunity, preserved as part of Archerfield Airport, that is central to a large population to support last mile delivery,” Lachlan said.

“It’s close to the Brisbane Produce Markets and the traditional industrial areas around Rocklea, without any flood inundation issues.”

A newly complete office/warehouse at 580 Transition Rd in the Transition-Archerfield Logistics Estate.

The 23ha Stage 1 of Transition-Archerfield Logistics Estate has a precommitment from Allied Express for a purpose-built 16,900sq m warehouse, joining inaugural tenant Shellby Power which was in the first building built.

Currently based in Rocklea, the courier and freight company Allied Express had suffered from Brisbane’s floods and 50 per cent national growth over three years was causing growing pains in its depots.

“When we saw the opportunities at Transition Estate, it was an absolute no-brainer,” Allied Express Queensland state manager Troy Finch said.

“We’re moving from a 8900sq m depot to a first-class 16,000sq m flood-free facility with two storeys of office space.”

Other deals at Transition were an ASX-listed tenant who recently committed to half of a 9500m duplex warehouse which has just been completed with the remaining 5000sq m unit is still available for lease.

Construction has started on a speculative, 5600sq m state-of-the-art cold store and freezer complex scheduled for completion in April 2024.

When completed Stage 1 will have about 100,000sq m under roof and Stage 2 will add another 6ha to the estate.

Duncan Bird said there was room to add to the airport’s current 150 tenancies, employing more than 500 people.

“In our 2011 master plan we foreshadowed the realigning of our grass runway which would remove it from some of the lower flood prone area, but it gives us a chance of opening up 500m of access straight on to the main runway,” he said.

“That would make it suitable for high-end aviation users and potentially some freight users who would back onto the Transition estate.”

Lachlan and Duncan Bird at the Transition-Archerfield Logistics Estate.

The Transition estate builds on Archerfield Airport’s $25m award-winning renaissance. Beginning in 2020 and capitalising on pandemic downtime, Archerfield’s Project AIM fast-forwarded 10 years of planned airside infrastructure upgrades over 2.5 years.

The result is a new longer, stronger runway capable of accommodating next-gen aircraft including corporate jets, as well as new taxiways, lighting, safety features, aircraft parking and other aviation facilities.

Project AIM transformed Brisbane’s 92-year-old icon into one of Australia’s premier centres for general and corporate aviation.

In 2021, Archerfield Airport was named Metropolitan Airport of the Year by the Australian Airports Association.

Lachlan said the prefers to fly under the radar and refused to comment about the end value of the Transition-Archerfield Logistics Estate.

“We’re fairly cagey on those sorts of financial matters. We are a pretty private kind of people,” he said.

“But we’ve consolidated debt. We’ve tried to make sure we’ve had a focus on the aviation side of the business. That is our core business.

“We have the second-highest number of aircraft movements a year in Queensland, just behind Brisbane Airport. We have the highest number of helicopter movements of any airport in the country, and that has been a big growth area for us.

“We’re also actively pursuing and looking at opportunities for the future like air taxis and electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.

“We’re positioning ourselves, not as a main transit hub for people, but more so for the old school use – like servicing aircraft and training pilots – and we’re talking to companies about moving high value freight from here.”