Brisbane waterfront development approved, to deliver 2,800 homes and new riverside precinct

Brisbane City Council and the South Bank Corporation have jointly approved a major extension to the Howard Smith Wharves riverside precinct that will deliver 2,800 new homes, a 220-room hotel, and 18,000 square metres of ground-level retail and hospitality space in a new neighbourhood between the Story Bridge and the Inner City Bypass.

The development, which will be built in three stages over 12 years, transforms a 6.5-hectare strip of under-utilised industrial land on the river's north bank into a new mixed-use precinct connected to the existing Howard Smith Wharves entertainment hub by a new pedestrian bridge.

The precinct's master plan, designed by Architectus with landscape architecture by TCL, proposes a continuous 1.1-kilometre river walk, a new market building, and a riverside park of approximately 2.2 hectares. Infrastructure engineering embedded into the design will allow the lower levels of the park to function as a managed flood zone during extreme weather events.

Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner said the project would meaningfully expand Brisbane's riverside activation between the CBD and New Farm, an area the council had identified as underdeveloped relative to comparable cities internationally. "In London or Amsterdam, this section of riverbank would already be one of the most vibrant parts of the city," he said.

Stage one construction, covering the southernmost 2.1 hectares and the first 780 apartments, is expected to begin after the Games-time planning period clears in late 2032.

This article was compiled by AI from the sources linked above and screened before publishing. See our editorial standards.