Approval for Brisbane’s 90 storey 111+222 Project

Taking Brisbane to new heights: Billbergia’s new 90 floor skyscraper is a symbol of Brisbane’s growing confidence.

DA APPROVED: The Brisbane City Council today approved Queensland’s tallest, most significant tower project named 111+222. The tower which was dubbed as a christmas ‘bon-bon’ by Councillor David Hinchliffe, because of it’s shape received unanimous approval in council chambers this morning. AMP Capital provided financing for Billbergia and will develop 111 Mary, the 34 storey office tower.

However to the disappointment of Brisbane’s skyscraper fans, the project was cut from 297m down to 274m, a decrease of 23 metres due to the massing of the building, which created a shadow for Brisbane Airport’s radar.

Today however, Bilbergia have stated that they will apply specially to the Brisbane Airport Corporation and CASA to restore the original height and possibly push it a little higher in order to be crowned Australia’s Tallest Building at 300m AHD.

Construction of the carpark will commence as soon as the excavated hole is dry (drainage is now occurring). The next stage of the project will be AMP’s 34 level commercial tower, followed by the 90 level hotel and residential apartment tower.

The Courier Mail today revealed that four major international hotel chains are vying for the operations of 222 tower. Billbergia spokesman Rick Graf said an announcement on just which hotel group would run the hotel component is expected early next year.

222 Margaret St Tower:

• The taller tower is currently known as 222 Margaret Street and is 90 levels (RL 274m) in height.
• A 5 star 380 room hotel is proposed for this tower, however the hotel operator is not yet known.
• The hotel will have a ballroom, restaurants, bars and a recreation deck
• The tower will mostly comprise of 790 one, two and three bedroom residential apartments over the 90 floors.
• Restaurants & bars will be situated throughout the project with a key cross block link from Mary to Margaret Street to be established in stage 1.
• The tower has a maximum height of 274m
• A world class restaurant and skybar will be located on the top floors of the tower.
• The tower is situated next to the proposed Cross River Rail – Albert Street underground station which will provide access to high capacity mass transit.

• 111 Mary St tower is the smallest of the two, rising 34 levels.
• This tower will be completely office.
• AMP Capital is funding this part of the development
• 980 car spaces will be built across eight underground levels.

The development has been designed by Bates Smart Architects and boasts a glass cylinder like design for the taller building. The news of 111+222 has recently overshadowed a significant height increase for Meriton’s Infinity tower which is currently under construction. The tower’s height which was planned to be 75 levels will now be increased to 81 – a 6 level increase. This new height has been submitted to council today. However 111+222’s 274m still trumps Infinity’s new 81 level increase.

Brisbane’s January floods caused the large excavation to fill up with water, which has remained that way since the floods. The new proposal will house all electrical powering and controlling devices on the podium level to avoid any future disruption to the tower if there is a reoccurrence of the January floods.

Economy

Brisbane’s economy which seemed to be sluggish coming out of the GFC is now powering ahead with the help of a new LNG mining boom on the horizon. According to BIS Shrapnel, annual construction activity will increase 50% to around $57 billion dollars by 2014 driven by both flood reconstruction and new Liquid Natural Gas projects which are expected to create tens of thousands of new direct LNG related jobs and thousands more flow-on jobs as a result.

Office vacancy rates in Brisbane have tumbled down from 10% to around 7% and is expected to go even lower as the resources sector starts its second boom.

Brisbane Development will update you throughout the construction of the 111+222 project.

Images supplied by Batessmart architecture.