Shopping Centre Giant Given Green Light for Gabba Transformation

Giant retail landlord Vicinity Centres has won a green light for its $750 million transformation of Brisbane’s Buranda Village, in which the shopping centre will become home to more than 620 apartments and up to 50,000sq m of commercial space.

Brisbane City Council has approved plans to redevelop the 45-year-old Woolloongabba shopping centre into a retail and dining village, with residential, office and other commercial spaces, as well as landscaped public open space.

Vicinity’s general manager for mixed-used development, Truman Dare, said the project would unlock more than 105,000sq m of development opportunity.

“The development plans for Buranda Village are the result of over two years of careful planning and research to ensure the project best meets the needs of the community, today and in the future,” Dare said.

“Our vision is set to transform Buranda Village into an integrated retail and mixed-use precinct that complements the area’s changing demographic and forecast population growth and its prime location just a few kilometres from Brisbane CBD.”

Buranda Village is a single-level sub-regional shopping centre that counts Target and Woolworths as its anchor clients, as well as 20 specialty stores. It’s about 5km from the centre of Brisbane.

Vicinity first revealed their proposal about 12 months ago.

▲ Vicinity said the transformation of the 45-year-old shopping centre would create 580 construction jobs.

Under the approved plans, the 620 apartments will be a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments across four buildings, each of 15 storeys. There will be about 10,000sq m of open-air, retail and dining and about 50,000sq m of office, commercial and health-related space across another three buildings—those from 10 to 15 storeys.

The proposal for the mall site was designed by architecture firms Rothelowman and Hassell.

The shopping precinct is 3km from the 42,000-seater Gabba stadium, which is planned to be the heart of the Games and will be upgraded to hold 50,000 spectators as part of $1-billion redevelopment.

Vicinity said they would target a five-star Green Star and five-star NABERS energy ratings with the project, while also aiming for carbon neutrality for the retail common areas.

Buranda Village opened in 1978 and was acquired by Vicinity in 2000, with a refurbishment in 2005.

The real estate investment trust hopes to begin construction early in 2024, when it will create 580 jobs. They expect the project will lead to 3200 jobs long-term.

Vicinity Centres—previously known as Federation Centres and Centro Properties Group—counts 60 shopping centres in its portfolio, which includes more than 6800 retailers.