Brisbane News & Gossip

[nathandavid88]

Well, the northern end of the Valley (up around Emporium) and Newstead are getting some major density-boosting redevelopment happening, with projects like M&A, Brooklyn on Brookes, Waterloo Junction and the big Gasworks and Waterfront projects.

Bowen Hills on the other hand in under the authority of the ULDA (for now at least), and has projects popping up all over the suburb, but the biggest by far is the complete redevelopment/rejuvenation of the RNA showgrounds which is currently underway. The aim is to turn it into a 24/7 precinct with dining and a fresh food markets among the residential and commercial developments.

Marty put together a comprehensive list of all the proposed and U/C projects in this thread. Have a look at the map and you'll see better what I mean about it looking completely different!

[KJBrissy]

Toowong Auchenflower Neighbourhood Plan now in effect.

[JayT]

Originally Posted by KJBrissy

Toowong Auchenflower Neighbourhood Plan now in effect.

Thankyou Brissy. I like to here about any council/planning news out there.

[lotec]

The new State Gov has asked for proposals to develop the current Supreme Court Site, however it now doesn't directly state that a performance theatre must be included. Applications now close in August. From today's Prime Site.

[KJBrissy]

It was the Newman Government who said that that is where a theatre should go. The ads have been running since before the election.

[lotec]

Originally Posted by KJBrissy

It was the Newman Government who said that that is where a theatre should go. The ads have been running since before the election.

The previous ads had a close off date of late march (i think?) and had stopped running. Now they're back up but with an August cut off and no stated requirement for the inclusion of a performance theatre.

[SoulvisionQ1]

If the government was smart here they would do a JV with the developer to deliver a mixed use precinct on that site. When the review being undertaken comes back saying we need another theatre, this could be quite a good opportunity to reduce costs.

[nathandavid88]

The question there is whether it's the Government's role to fund, even partially, another performing arts space? While I don't at all dispute that we BADLY need another 1500-2000 seat space, I just think that they should just stick with impose the requirement for one as part of redeveloping the Courthouse site. Developers (well, the good ones) would have bigger pockets than our State Government at the moment. They should stick to funding things that you can't get from a commercial entity (eg. infrastructure like Cross River Rail).

[neilo63]

Originally Posted by nathandavid88

The question there is whether it's the Government's role to fund, even partially, another performing arts space? While I don't at all dispute that we BADLY need another 1500-2000 seat space, I just think that they should just stick with impose the requirement for one as part of redeveloping the Courthouse site. Developers (well, the good ones) would have bigger pockets than our State Government at the moment. They should stick to funding things that you can't get from a commercial entity (eg. infrastructure like Cross River Rail).

I would agree with that and perhaps the developer could operate it for a while to recoup money on a lease arrangement that expires in xx years.

agree too.

Mixed space, yeah can go with that. Turn it into the new Festival Hall for concerts and theatre, call it Festival Hall (too bad for the Melbourne lot with the naming issues) and put other stuff you all think is needed there. The only thing I don't agree with is, we do need a new theatre and I see your points re funding, but believe me, being older and living back here in the 80's, Brisbane is not missing out on productions as much as it used to. I picture the new area maybe putting on arty crap like at Belvior Street *sorry spelling Sydneynites* in Sydney, or be a bit like the Malthouse in Melbourne with productions that are less well-known. But please don't turn the courts into office crap.

[nathandavid88]

While QPAC has meant that Brisbane is getting the types of productions we used to miss out on completely 25 odd years ago, it's become a victim of it's own success in that we now have a situation where we are again missing out on the big touring productions because the Lyric Theatre is already booked out, and unlike Sydney and Melbourne, we don't have anywhere else capable of holding shows of that size (the closest is probably the Powerhouse with an approx 600 seated capacity.)

We don't really need a Festival Hall replacement as such because we have a good variety of venues that can accommodate music acts of various sizes – the BEC at Boondal, BCEC at South Bank, the Riverstage, the RNA, Suncorp and QE2 Stadiums, and smaller venues like the Powerhouse, the Tivoli, the Zoo and a few similar ones down in West End. Theatre productions aren't quite as flexible, and need a much more specialised space, which are in short supply in Brisbane.

[fish.01]

Originally Posted by fish.01

A BT article states that the local Amazon company that has sprung back to life recently is 'conducting business in the form of the provision of marketing and other corporate services for and on behalf of an associated company, Amazon Web Services LLC'' '.

For those of you that don't know Amazon Web Services is amazons cloud computing arm. There is a lot of demand for a local cloud solution from one of the big guns. Maybe Amazon is here to start a cloud data centre?

With regards to whether amazon retailing/distribution is involved the article says:

'Mr Burford said he was not aware of specific plans for Amazon in Australia and whether or not they included retailing. He said that ''to date'' plans had included data operations but added: ''I sense it's going to be big.'''


Source: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/busi...skin=text-only

Heard that amazon is indeed looking at setting up an AWS cloud centre in Australia around October...possibly starting with using an existing data centre.

[bne]

http://media.brisbanetimes.com.au/na...d-3316070.html

[JayT]

A003359071 - Centre Activity, Centre Activity Within Centre 6 LITTLE CRIBB ST MILTON QLD 4064 21/05/2012 12:00:00 AM

Another small office tower proposed for Milton.

[KJBrissy]

Looks good. I like the street level.

[nathandavid88]

Lots of retail is always a good thing! Not a bad little building at all!

[Birkish Delight]

Personally I'd prefer projects like these spread around the city in places like Milton, Indooroopilly, Toowong, Upper Mount Gravatt, Sunnybank, Carindale, South Brisbane, Wooloongabba, East Brisbane, Chermside, Newstead, The Valley etc than another 40+ skyscraper in the CBD.

Brisbane needs to get out of the CBD and take some commercial / employment density to the suburbs rather than continue to pack the city. But in saying this we would then need to shake up public transport and replace some of the city services and make more cross city/ suburb routes to service them properly.

[KDreamer]

I wish we had suburban routes. Like in my region a route that services Mt Gravatt Central, Carindale, Wishart, Mansfield, & Garden City, for example.

[BrizzyChris]

Good little building...I count 12 stories at ~55m.

[nathandavid88]

I've just been looking today's City News, and the QR network closure ad for this weekend - Roma Street to Yeerongpilly & Murrarie (any train fans might want to catch a Beenleigh or GC service this weekend, they'll be going via Sherwood on the Tennyson Loop).

Anyway, as per usual, they've listed the works to be done, including the normal type of stuff; re-railing around Roma Street, overhead maintenance and South Brisbane Station works. However, one of the ones listed was a bit more unusual – "Southbank (Southpoint) Development". Anyone care to hazard a guess as to what QR means by that?