Government buys West End site for Olympic broadcast centre

Deputy premier Steven Miles, premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Visy co-owners Heloise Pratt and Fiona Geminder, treasurer Cameron Dick and Visy general manager, Innovation and Corporate Affairs, Richard Macchiesi.

The state government has snapped up a prominent waterfront West End industrial site with plans to convert it to the International Broadcasting Centre for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Beside the Go Between Bridge, the seven hectare Montague Road block (image, top, Google Street View) is costing $165 million from Visy, which will use proceeds to establish a replacement glass manufacturing facility at Stapylton, an outer northern Gold Coast suburb.

It is unknown whether any historic warehouses might be incorporated into the Brisbane redevelopment.

The nearby Parmalat milk factory has also been earmarked for an Olympic infrastructure project.

Both blocks are walking distance to the CBD, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Brisbane Football Stadium (Suncorp Stadium) and Brisbane Arena.

Announcing the decision at an event this week (image, above, right), premier and minister for the Olympics, Annastacia Palaszczuk, likened the urban renewal to the nearby South Bank, now a major community precinct with low density housing, built on the block where the 1988 Expo was held.

Vital infrastructure: Annastacia Palaszczuk

Ms Palaszczuk described the West End proposal as vital piece of infrastructure (story continues below).

“This deal secures the site for the International Broadcast Centre, but it also secures the manufacturing jobs currently located at the Visy factory in West End,” she said.

“The agreement to secure the IBC site is part of a broader deal between the Palaszczuk Government and Visy which will see the company invest $700m in Queensland,” a government statement added.

This includes a new Stapylton manufacturing facility and cardboard box factory at Hemmant, near Brisbane Airport.

“Thanks to a $16m investment by the Palaszczuk government, committed to at the last election, Visy will [also] invest in major upgrades to the Material Recovery Facility on Gibson Island,” Mr Miles said.

Visy executive chairman Anthony Pratt added the investment fulfils a 2021 pledge “to invest $2 billion in Australian recycling and clean energy infrastructure over the ensuing decade, creating thousands of new green collar, well-paying Australian manufacturing jobs”

“This is the largest investment Visy has ever made in Queensland,” according to the businessman “and is part of my pledge to invest $2b in Australia over the decade”.

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Marc Pallisco

A former property analyst and print journalist, Marc is the publisher of realestatesource.com.au.