Former Bank and Turkish Baths On the Block

A 100-year-old former bank and Turkish baths has been listed in the heart of Brisbane’s CBD. 

The four-storey office at 231 Albert Street is on the market for the first time in more than 25 years. 

The heritage-listed brick building was built for Queensland Deposit Bank and Building Society Ltd in 1923. 

Turkish baths also operated from the basement of the building soon after it was completed and various tenants occupied the offices on the upper floors, according to historical records. 

The 100 per cent freehold asset, which is owned by an entity, Kuang Ta Pty Ltd, is being marketed by Colliers agents Tony Wang and Shaun Seeto and MG Property Investments agent Mark Greer. 

MG Property Investments’ Mark Greer said freehold assets in the Queen Street Mall were “very rarely offered for sale”.

“Located diagonally opposite one of the largest CBD bus interchanges at King George Square, and surrounded by a plethora of national and international retail labels and key service providers, it has been a very tightly held site,” Greer said. 

The building comprises 1187sq m of net lettable area, a two-bedroom rooftop caretaker apartment, basement parking for five cars, and a mixture of office and retail tenancies. 

According to recent Dexus research, retail turnover in Australia grew by a sluggish 1.7 per cent in the year to May 2024, well below the 10-year average. 

But forecasts offer a bit more encouragement, predicting an improvement in sales growth over the next year with the annual rate rising to 3.5 per cent a year by the second quarter of 2025. 

Colliers Queensland investment services senior executive Shaun Seeto said the asset was ripe for refurbishment or repositioning.

“The strategic position of the building is going to be further enhanced by the addition of multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects, such as the new Brisbane Metro at King George Square, and Albert Street Cross River Rail station, and the Queens Wharf precinct,” Seeto said. 

“With the prominent and renowned ground-floor retail tenancy with 10m of mall frontage, as well as a further 36.6m of street frontage on Lower Burnett Lane, there is a generational asset in the tightly held and irreplaceable Queen and Albert Street Mall.”

Henry Halliday, who had operated his Turkish baths from this 231 Albert Street site since the 1890s, moved his baths into the basement of the new Queensland Deposit Bank Building after it was completed, according to the heritage register.

The bank offices were on the ground floor while a variety of other businesses leased the upper floors.

The Mason’s United Grand Lodge, whose Grand Master, Alexander Corrie, was one of the bank’s directors, leased the building’s top floor for offices and a Masonic room. This arrangement continued until 1929, when the Masons moved to their new temple at Ann Street.