NEWS
Brisbane City’s biggest eyesore is to be turned into the city’s tallest building after council recently approved developer Billbergia’s application for a 90-storey hotel and residential building and a 34-storey commercial building in the CBD.
The two-tower project will be built on the old Vision site between Mary and Margaret streets, which has remained an eight-storey hole in the ground since its previous owners went into receivership in 2009. Both sides of City Council endorsed the project – known as 111+222 – with Lord Mayor Graham Quirk calling it “another major step in the city’s economic recovery after the global financial crisis and January's devastating flood”.
“For the last few years the Vision site has been an ugly reminder of how just how gloomy things were for Brisbane during the global financial crisis,” Cr Quirk said. “However with more and more projects like this one now getting under way it sends a strong message to the rest of Australia, and indeed the world, that Brisbane is back in business.
“The economic benefits of major projects like this one also flow all the way through to the kitchen table as they mean hundreds of new jobs for local residents and more business for our local companies."
The 90-storey main tower will house a luxury 380 room five-star international hotel and 800 one, two and three bedroom apartments and penthouses. The development will also have about 1000 car parks spread across eight underground levels. Cr Quirk said he was particularly excited by the prospect of a new hotel on the site, given the major shortage of quality accommodation in the city in recent years.
“I want to attract more big events and business to town as part of my focus on boosting economic development in this city – but you can’t do that without quality accommodation which is why this project is so important,” Cr Quirk said.
“Up until recent weeks we’ve seen hotel construction sit stagnant in Brisbane for over a decade, and while projects such as this are a start, I want to make Brisbane the number-one choice for new developments.”
