Lend Lease is understood to have struck a development agreement for a major riverfront industrial site at Brisbane’s Morningside, in what is likely to be one of the city’s largest urban regeneration plays for the future.
The 14.35ha of land and dockyards has housed shipbuilding and heavy engineerings works, but is only around 300m from the federal government’s Bulimba Barracks, another long-term urban redevelopment site that could house 855 dwellings across its 20ha.
The Morningside site, owned by the Forgacs family and marketed by JLL as Cairncross Quays, is likely to see a similar number of dwellings built and has previously been tagged as a $1 billion project.
Lend Lease has major redevelopment projects around the country including the mixed office, residential and retail Barangaroo on Sydney Harbour and in Brisbane the group’s urban regeneration project at the RNA showgrounds site at inner-city Bowen Hills is well under way.
A Lend Lease spokeswoman declined to comment on the Cairncross site. Shipbuilding works at the 405 Thynne Road parcel, which has 700m of riverfront, ceased in 2014, but the site still has its wharves and 6.65ha of “wet leases”.
Sources said the land was worth about $40m.
The current dry dock could be converted to retail and restaurants while the wharves could accommodate larger boats.
Bidders were asked to provide two scenarios — a minimum purchase price for the site and an “upside scenario”, including a proposed development.
The Brisbane City Council approved a master plan for the Bulimba Barracks site in December 2015 allowing a mix of retail, units in buildings of up to five storeys, open space, community facilities and defence uses.