A proposal for a major infill development in Brisbane’s CBD has been submitted to the Brisbane City Council for a 26-storey office tower.
AM Brisbane CBD Investments, a joint venture between wealth manager Ashe Morgan and developer David Mann’s DMann Corporation, lodged a development application to the Brisbane City Council on Monday.
The acquisition of the Health and Forestry House buildings, which front Mary and Charlotte Streets, was finalised last week with the development team acquiring the cross-block hub for $66 million.
Architects Fender Katsalidis — in their first Brisbane-based venture — will design the Midtown Centre by combining the existing site hosting the Forestry and Health buildings at 155 Charlotte Street and 150 Mary Street, into one single building.
Fender Katsalidis said the precinct will feature a range of open-air spaces accessible by tenants ranging from outdoor terraces at podium level, to open-air spaces on each floor, and a landscaped sky garden on the 20th level. The sky garden makes provision for six-storeys of usable floors above the current building height.
The Health and Forestry Houses, which housed Queensland government departments for 34 years, will be redeveloped into a “mid-town hub”. Images courtesy of JLL Queensland.The commercial tower will provide highly-flexible podium campus floor plates between 2,400 and 2,500 square metres and typical floor plates between 1,750 and 1,950 square metres.
Firm managing director Karl Fender worked directly on the Midtown Centre design and said he believes the project will become a global exemplar for re-purposing dated office building assets.
“Midtown Centre is the evolution of commercial architecture within the Brisbane city centre,” Fender said.
“The building’s ability to engage with its environment through access to outdoor spaces, fresh air, natural daylight and living greenery are all central to the ‘buildings that breathe’ philosophy that we are seeing being adopted in the world’s premium cities.”
The building’s design also aims to achieve a 5 Star Green Star rating with the inclusion of eco-friendly elements such as high-performance glazing, energy efficient lighting and a 400 capacity end of the trip facility.
Project Director, Michael Bruderlin of InDeMa Properties said the design would deliver what large corporates were looking for in a workspace.
“Modern corporate tenants have high expectations of their workplace. It needs to have the ability to expand and contract as their needs change and support more sophisticated and technology-driven models of staff collaboration,” Bruderlin said.
“There is also a real trend for large companies to consolidate multiple office sites to improve efficiency, culture, and performance and by providing some of the largest floor plates in the city, Midtown Centre helps them achieve that.”
Council will now assess the development application and pending approval, completion is anticipated in late 2019.
Originally Published: www.theurbandeveloper.com
