_Brisbane Fringe market well placed to capitalise on the trend towards integrated neighbourhoods

As demand from commercial tenants for more than just office space intensifies, there are several pockets within the Brisbane Fringe market poised to make the most of the trend towards integrated neighbourhoods and placemaking.

Jennelle Wilson December 17, 2018

With homogenous precincts no longer attractive to many occupants the mixing of residential, convenience retail, leisure/entertainment facilities and shared open spaces is seen as vital to attract major corporate office users. The Brisbane Fringe market is well-placed to create or take advantage of the demand for these integrated neighbourhoods.

Lend Lease’s Brisbane Showgrounds and AMP/Sunsuper’s Milton Green have actively curated their precincts, while locations in South Brisbane and Newstead already have a vibrant mixture of uses on their doorstep.

The Milton Green precinct works were implemented in part due to the relocation of Origin Energy into a new building in the CBD. With a long lead time to plan for Origin’s departure the landlords implemented a strong placemaking strategy for the office park, rebranding as Milton Green, boosting retail amenity and shared spaces. This, combined with the quality building fabric and large floorplates of 1,400sqm+ has seen all of the available Origin backfill space leased to tenants including Downer EDI (7,137 sqm), Sandvik (2,931 sqm) and AIA (1,466 sqm).

Above: Milton Green (left) and 25 King St (right) are examples of modern office precincts with retail, amenity and shared spaces as key offerings

New building supply in the Fringe market has been lower over the past three years with the two completions during 2018 (900 Ann St, Fortitude Valley – 18,791 sqm and Lend Lease’s 25 King St, Bowen Hills – 14,429 sqm) the first since the Flight Centre building was opened in late 2016. 25 King St, within the Brisbane Showgrounds precinct, was both the tallest and largest engineered timber office building in Australia when completed in November 2018.

As demand is showing steady acceleration it is expected that further new construction will commence in the Fringe during 2019/20. There are a number of proposed developments which are awaiting pre-commitment to commence, largely within the Urban Renewal precinct. At this stage only 11 Breakfast Creek Rd, Newstead has a confirmed major pre-commitment in place.

With the recent tightening of lending criteria by the majority of commercial banks it is expected that significant pre-commitment hurdles will be required to progress construction. This will continue to limit the speed at which these proposed projects will be delivered to the market.

For more details on the office development projects which have approval and the background to the improving tenant demand, see the complete Brisbane Fringe Office Market overview here or contact local market specialists Andrew Carlton or Shane Van Beest.