Brisbane retail transforms as Myer Centre redevelopment and Queen's Wharf reshape CBD spending

Brisbane's retail and commercial landscape is undergoing its most significant transformation in a generation, with the $3.6 billion Queen's Wharf integrated resort and the planned redevelopment of the Myer Centre together reshaping the CBD's retail, dining, and entertainment offer and positioning Brisbane as a genuinely cosmopolitan shopping destination rather than a secondary retail market behind Sydney and Melbourne.

Queen's Wharf, which opened its first commercial components in 2024, is already generating significant consumer spending in the precinct, with its casino, hotel, and retail and dining floors attracting both Brisbane residents and interstate visitors for experiences not previously available in the Queensland capital. The complex's integration with the South Bank cultural precinct has created a continuous riverfront activation zone that is generating foot traffic at volumes that have surprised even the project's developers.

The Myer Centre redevelopment — announced as a $1.1 billion transformation of the 30-year-old shopping centre into a mixed-use precinct combining retail, residential, hotel, and office uses — will remove the barrier that the existing structure creates on the Queen Street Mall and create a more porous connection between the mall and surrounding streets. The redevelopment is expected to take six years and will substantially increase the square meterage of retail and food and beverage space available in the Queen Street precinct.

Brisbane City Council's city activation director Lisa Byrne said the combined investments were repositioning Brisbane in the national retail hierarchy and creating a CBD retail offer that warranted comparison with Pitt Street or Collins Street for premium and specialty retailers. Several international luxury brands have opened Brisbane stores in the past two years, reflecting growing confidence in the market's depth.

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