IFM Investors has lodged plans to redevelop half a city block in the Brisbane CBD, adding 290 apartments, a 240-room hotel, an office tower and a public garden, all linked by a shop-lined walkway between Queen Street Mall and Elizabeth Street.
A Slope Instead of Escalators
Right now, getting between the mall and Elizabeth Street means riding escalators. The new design would swap that for a gentle slope. Called Regent Lane, the walkway would follow the natural drop in ground level, with shops on both sides and wide openings at each end so people on the footpath can see inside.
Woods Bagot, the architects, designed the scheme. On the Queen Street side, the entrance would sit beside the Regent building, with the lane’s name hanging overhead and escalators heading up to a second retail level. At the Elizabeth Street end, the opening would run beneath a raised office lobby. The planning report says the two retail levels would be laid out like a shopping arcade, mostly for shops, cafes and restaurants, though tenancies could change use over time.
Two Towers on a Vacant Lot
Behind the Regent building, an empty lot on Elizabeth Street would hold most of the new height. According to documents lodged with council, a six-storey podium would carry a 45-storey tower of just under 182 metres. Hotel rooms would fill levels six to 15, with 24 rooms on each floor. The apartments would sit above, made up of 154 two-bedroom homes, 132 three-bedroom homes and four with four bedrooms.
Next door, a 16-storey office tower would reach about 95 metres. It would hold 24,607 square metres of commercial space, while the whole precinct would carry 7,384 square metres of shops. The office lobby would sit on Level 1 rather than at street level, with lounge seating, casual meeting areas and a glass edge facing Elizabeth Street. The plans also include 630 bicycle spaces.
Much of the existing Wintergarden shopping centre would go. The planning report says shops would not be lost from the site, since the new podium would carry retail on two levels.
A Garden Above the Mall
Picture a lawn, a wine bar and a cafe a few floors above the Queen Street Mall crowds. That is the idea for Level 5, a podium garden reached by an express escalator or by lift.
The plans show public restaurants, bars, a cafe and wellness spaces mixed in with lawns and landscaped paths. Terraces with outdoor dining would look down on Elizabeth Street through a screen of plants. Hotel guests would get their own pool, spa and leisure areas, kept apart from the public parts by planting and architectural dividers.
LatStudios designed the landscaping. The planning report counts about 2,275 square metres of planted outdoor space across the project. New trees would line Elizabeth Street, existing trees in the mall would stay, and climbing plants, pergolas and shaded seating would soften the podium.
The Regent, the Butterflies and the Street
The heritage-listed Regent building stays. Its cinemas were demolished in 2011, and the plans propose no building work on what remains. Its foyer would become part of the hotel’s Queen Street arrival and link to a lobby on the mezzanine. Residents and hotel guests would have their own Elizabeth Street entrances, and a basement area would offer three drop-off bays.
The Wintergarden’s butterfly screen is part of a separate, earlier application. The screen has hung above the mall since 2012, and taking it down would show the original 1982 brick facade underneath. The existing InterContinental hotel tower, the former Hilton, is not part of that retail works application.
On Elizabeth Street, the Wintergarden car park ramps would be removed and new shopfronts added. Jessica Pitcher, a senior planner at Place Design Group who prepared the report for IFM, says the changes would improve the walk along the northern side of the street and tie it into the mall through the new cross-block link. She describes the project as major regeneration for the city centre.
A Site With a Busy Planning Past
This is not the first plan for the land. The previous owner, ISPT, pitched an office tower and later a 42-storey mixed-use tower. This latest scheme is the third redesign of the site in three years.
Brisbane City Council will now assess the application.
Published Date 07-October-2026
