Outdoor apparel company Patagonia has opened a new Brisbane retail store in Fortitude Valley, adding a location that the brand says will also serve as a place for community interaction linked to outdoor activities.
The new store is located at 7 Wandoo Street, within the James Street precinct. Patagonia has positioned the space as more than a retail outlet, describing it as a site where people interested in outdoor environments can gather and connect.
The Fortitude Valley location began operating on Saturday, 28 February 2026, becoming one of two new Australian locations opened by the brand. The Brisbane opening follows the launch of Patagonia’s Hobart store in late 2025.
The store carries outdoor apparel designed for activities including surfing, trail running, climbing, mountain biking and snow sports.
Patagonia has indicated the Fortitude Valley site is intended to support conversations and collaboration among people interested in outdoor recreation and nature-based activities. The space has also been described as a location for learning and engagement connected to the outdoors.
The company has linked the Brisbane store to its wider environmental engagement across Australia and New Zealand, including support for grassroots conservation efforts.
The new store sits within the James Street precinct, an area that includes a range of retail businesses.
Patagonia has also indicated the store may host community-focused events and gatherings connected to outdoor activities. Further information about programming at the Fortitude Valley location is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
The Fortitude Valley opening adds another Australian location for the brand as it continues to expand its retail presence while linking its stores with community engagement and outdoor activity.
A revised development application has been lodged for a high-rise apartment building at the heritage-listed former bread factory site in Fortitude Valley.
The proposal relates to 36 Warry Street within the complex known as The Baker’s Grounds. An associated property at 39 Kennigo Street is also listed.
The development application, numbered A006963038, was submitted on 17 February 2026 and is recorded as in progress. It seeks approval to carry out building work and a material change of use, with the assessment listed at code level. RG Property Pty Ltd is named as the primary applicant, with Urbis Pty Ltd identified as consultant.
Photo Credit: DA/A006963038
Background Of The Heritage Complex
The brick complex was originally constructed in 1916 as Keating’s Bread Factory. Bread production ceased around the end of World War II.
Parts of the former ovens and stables used for horse deliveries remain on site. The property was listed as a local heritage place in 2004. The site sits between Warry Street and Kennigo Street, about 250 metres from Victoria Park. It is currently used largely as office space under the name The Baker’s Grounds.
Photo Credit: DA/A006963038
Revised Tower Plans In Fortitude Valley
Updated plans describe a residential tower containing 100 apartments. The building height has been reported in two different ways, with one account describing 17 storeys and another referring to 20 storeys.
The revised proposal follows an earlier 15-storey scheme approved in December 2024, which was reported as allowing 111 units. The updated plan reduces the residential yield to 100 apartments. Design documentation for the revised proposal has been prepared by DAH Architecture.
Process milestones include the commencement of the confirmation period on 27 February 2026 and a properly made date of 2 March 2026. A decision notice date is not yet recorded. No construction start date has been confirmed, and existing tenancies continue to operate at the Fortitude Valley site while the application remains under assessment.
Brisbane’s most colourful inner-city precinct will provide the backdrop for a major new six-part ABC crime drama, with Queensland production company Moving Floor Entertainment set to begin filming Fortitude Valley in the suburb from April 2026 ahead of its 2027 national premiere on ABC TV and ABC iview.
The announcement confirms that one of Brisbane’s most cinematically distinctive and culturally loaded neighbourhoods is finally getting the screen treatment many have long argued it deserves. The series places Fortitude Valley at the centre of a crime thriller that moves through family secrets, underground power structures and the moral compromises that accumulate in a precinct where extremes of wealth and poverty have always coexisted within a few city blocks of each other. For residents and regulars of the Valley, the prospect of seeing their suburb rendered on screen with the full weight of a prestige Australian drama behind it carries a particular kind of significance.
The Series and the Story
Fortitude Valley is a six-part crime thriller exploring underground crime syndicates, family secrets, corruption and power plays set in the Queensland capital. The series stars AACTA Award-winning First Nations actor Hunter Page-Lochard, known for Reckless and The Newsreader, alongside acclaimed actress Kat Stewart, whose credits include Offspring, Black Snow and Five Bedrooms.
Photo Credit: QPS
Page-Lochard is not only the lead actor but one of the series’ three co-writers, sharing writing credits with Moving Floor Entertainment co-founders Stephen M. Irwin and Leigh McGrath. Direction falls to Sian Davies, with Andy Walker producing and Ross Allsop serving as co-producer. Executive producers are Irwin, McGrath, Greg Sitch and Page-Lochard, with ABC executive producers Brett Sleigh and Rachel Okine overseeing for the national broadcaster. International distribution is handled by DCD Rights.
The series carries major production investment from Screen Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Screen Queensland, and will film and complete post-production entirely within Queensland.
The Company Behind It
Moving Floor Entertainment was founded in 2020 by Brisbane-based writer-producers Stephen M. Irwin and Leigh McGrath, who had previously collaborated for seven years across productions including Harrow, Tidelands and Secrets and Lies. The company launched with a clear commitment to produce high-end drama from Queensland for international audiences, and Fortitude Valley marks its most significant project to date.
The pedigree behind the series is substantial. Irwin co-created the forensic crime series Harrow for the ABC, created and wrote Secrets and Lies, which the ABC Network later remade in the United States, and co-created the Tidelands for Netflix. McGrath co-created and co-executive produced all three seasons of Harrow and co-created Five Bedrooms, which now airs on Paramount Plus, Peacock and BBC One. Both have worked extensively with major broadcasters in the United Kingdom and the United States. Fortitude Valley marks the first project they have brought to screen where Brisbane’s streets are not merely a backdrop but the explicit subject of the story itself.
McGrath graduated from Griffith University in 1994, and his return to produce a landmark series set in his home city represents the kind of career arc that the Queensland screen industry has spent decades working to make possible.
Why Fortitude Valley
The Valley’s particular geography of contrasts, the Chinatown precinct, the heritage-listed Art Deco facades, Brunswick Street’s strip of venues and late-night trade, the social services concentrated along its edges and the significant levels of disadvantage that persist alongside recent gentrification, gives the series a built-in visual and thematic richness that few Australian suburbs can offer. It is a place where multiple Brisbanes overlap: the tourist precinct and the struggling community, the developer’s vision and the street-level reality.
Those contrasts have made Fortitude Valley fertile ground for storytelling across its history. The suburb’s real-world story includes the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police and political corruption that ran from 1987 to 1989 and fundamentally changed the relationship between law enforcement, vice industries and civic power in Queensland. The inquiry’s findings emerged largely from the Valley itself. A crime drama set in contemporary Fortitude Valley carries the weight of that history whether it addresses it explicitly or not, and it gives the series a depth of local cultural memory that purely fictional settings cannot replicate.
What It Means for Queensland Screen
The Fortitude Valley production joins a growing slate of work that positions Queensland as a serious force in the Australian drama landscape. Screen Queensland’s current supported productions include Muster Dogs, Dance with Tom, Troppo Season Two and the upcoming Dustfall. Fortitude Valley, backed by both Screen Australia and Screen Queensland through the Screen Finance Fund and the Post, Digital and Visual Effects Incentive, represents the largest locally created drama production the state has supported in recent years.
Every cast and crew position, every day of location shooting through the Valley’s streets and laneways, every post-production hour completed in Queensland contributes to an industry infrastructure that needs exactly this kind of sustained, high-profile investment to retain and develop the talent pipeline that makes future productions possible.
Filming begins in Brisbane in April 2026. Fortitude Valley airs on ABC TV and ABC iview in 2027.
A new cancer rehabilitation centre opening in Fortitude Valley this Thursday aims to offer Queensland patients access to an Australian-developed therapy designed to ease the side effects of conventional cancer treatment.
The Leading Light Rehab Clinic will provide OncoLaser therapy, a low-level laser treatment developed by the clinic’s co-directors Kate Perkins and Dr Catherine Norton.
The therapy uses photobiomodulation—a process that stimulates cellular energy production—to help manage complications that can arise from chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and immunotherapy. According to Dr Norton, who serves as the clinic’s CEO, the treatment is intended to work alongside standard cancer care rather than replace it.
“It uses low-level laser therapy to support healthy tissue before, during and after chemotherapy, radiation and surgery,” Dr Norton said. The approach focuses on reducing painful side effects rather than treating cancer cells directly.
Ms Perkins, who co-developed the OncoLaser system, said the technology aims to fill gaps in supportive oncological care. “Opening at Leading Light Rehab Clinic allows us to extend these services to more patients in Brisbane in a collaborative healthcare environment,” she said.
The treatment is described as non-invasive and opioid-free, targeting issues such as oral mucositis, radiation dermatitis, delayed wound healing, pain and certain neuropathy symptoms that can result from cancer treatment.
The clinic’s opening event will feature a panel discussion with oncology and integrative health specialists. Dr David Schlecht, a radiation oncologist at The Wesley Hospital, will discuss recent developments in radiation oncology.
“Equally important is ensuring patients have access to supportive therapies that help manage side effects, support healing and maintain quality of life throughout their treatment journey,” Dr Schlecht said.
The clinic plans to work with cancer treatment centres, GPs, surgeons and allied health professionals across the region. OncoLaser has indicated plans to expand its network across regional Australia through partnerships with local health providers.
Queensland University of Technology at Gardens Point will become the new custodian of Meanjin, bringing Australia’s second-oldest literary magazine back to Brisbane 80 years after it relocated to Melbourne.
The 85-year-old journal is heading back to the city that gave it its name. While Clem Christesen first pulled the inaugural Meanjin Papers together in suburban Greenslopes in 1940, bringing the masthead to QUT’s Gardens Point campus marks a massive symbolic return to the heart of the river city. After 80 years in Melbourne, the journal is finally back on the Turrbal and Yugara lands where its story began.
Melbourne University Press announced in September 2025 that Meanjin would close due to financial pressures, with editor Esther Anatolitis and deputy editor Eli McLean made redundant and the final issue released in December. The announcement triggered immediate backlash from Australia’s literary community, including authors Jennifer Mills, Anna Krien, Claire G Coleman and former editors Sophie Cunningham and Jonathan Green.
Gardens Point Campus to Host National Literary Icon
QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Margaret Sheil said the university is delighted to bring Meanjin home to Meanjin/Magandjin, the Turrbal and Yugara word for the lands where Gardens Point campus now stands. Since its foundation, the literary magazine has been instrumental in shaping Australian literary and intellectual culture, providing a vital platform for critical discussion and a showcase for emerging writers.
The university will appoint an editorial board to ensure the journal’s independence, values and standards are maintained, and will recruit an editor through a national competitive search. QUT will take time to thoughtfully re-establish the journal in Queensland and consider how to most effectively reinvigorate Meanjin while respecting its founding vision and literary legacy.
Complementing Creative Writing Programs
Professor of Creative Writing Kári Gíslason said QUT has a distinguished group of alumni writers who have gone on to become renowned Australian authors. The partnership affirms how creativity, literature and excellence in writing allow people to think deeply and connect ideas in imaginative ways to the world around them.
The journal will complement the focused, high-quality creative writing program within the QUT School of Creative Arts at Gardens Point. Meanjin’s move to QUT sends a message to students that this connection between creative excellence and intellectual engagement remains as true now as it ever was.
Principal policy adviser John Byron, a published author and former executive director of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, said rehoming the journal will take considerable work and QUT will take the time to do it properly. The university is a long way off releasing the next issue, as it has no editor, production staff or editorial board yet, but will get there.
The transfer is already underway and work now begins in earnest. QUT understands the scale of the privilege it has been afforded and will take good care of Meanjin, Byron said.
Literary Community Response
Former Meanjin editor Jonathan Green said the news of the journal’s return was a delightful surprise and it is lovely to think the literary magazine will be journeying back to Brisbane where its adventure began. Academic Ben Eltham, a long-running contributor, called the return a victory for everyone who fought to save this vital masthead for the future of Australian literature.
The timing aligns with Queensland’s plans to elevate the creative economy, support local talent and showcase the state’s unique stories and culture to a global audience ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Melbourne University Press Chair Warren Bebbington said QUT’s understanding of the journal’s legacy surpassed those of other expressions of interest received from organizations wanting to take over the publication.
A prominent development site at 70-82 Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley has launched to market with concept plans for towers up to 40 storeys, positioning developers to meet Brisbane’s growing need for apartments ahead of the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Colliers Queensland‘s Brendan Hogan and Troy Linnane have been appointed to sell the site known as Landmark Brisbane, spanning 2,416 square metres across three street frontages. The property sits at the convergence of Brisbane CBD, Fortitude Valley and New Farm, placing it at the heart of the city’s most dynamic lifestyle, employment and growth corridors.
Concept plans prepared by architects Cottee Parker outline development scenarios of 25 and 40 storeys, delivering more than 350 apartments under both build-to-sell and build-to-rent scenarios, subject to approval. The site currently hosts a two-storey retail and commercial complex.
Gateway Location Near Howard Smith Wharves
Hogan said the development site is positioned close to Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane’s premier riverfront dining and entertainment precinct, and only a 15-minute walk to the Victoria Park Olympic precinct. This proximity to Olympic infrastructure adds appeal for developers looking to capitalise on the Games-driven demand for accommodation.
Inner-city Brisbane is experiencing acute undersupply of apartments, with vacancy rates below one percent and prestige developments in the inner-city are setting new benchmarks, with some luxury projects now commanding upwards of $20,000 per square metre. Market analysts currently rank Brisbane’s growth fundamentals as the strongest among eastern seaboard capitals, driven by persistent undersupply and interstate migration.
360-Degree Views and Strategic Position
The proposed tower heights unlock potential for 360-degree views, offering future residents uninterrupted outlooks over the CBD, Story Bridge, and Brisbane River. The surrounding Fortitude Valley precinct is undergoing rapid gentrification, underpinned by premium residential developments, lifestyle-driven demand and strong population growth.
Linnane said South East Queensland’s population growth is driving unprecedented demand for inner-city apartments, making high-quality development sites in prime locations increasingly scarce. The site’s gateway positioning, river and skyline views, and proximity to the Olympic precinct create a once-in-a-generation opportunity to develop a world-class project.
Strong Market Interest Expected
Colliers has already seen strong market interest from a range of local, interstate and offshore developers, as well as institutional investors and high net worth individuals. The expressions of interest campaign for the Fortitude Valley development site closes March 19, with multiple parties expected to compete for the opportunity.
The site joins other major Fortitude Valley development sites currently on the market, including a Barry Parade property with approval for dual towers of 27 and 37 storeys comprising 490 apartments. The cluster of development opportunities reflects Fortitude Valley’s position as a key growth area for Brisbane’s residential market ahead of the 2032 Games.
Brisbane-based artist Renee Kire is transforming the Museum of Brisbane entryway with bold vinyl graphics and sculptural timber elements as the institution’s first Artist in Residence for 2026.
From March 6, visitors entering the Level 3 City Hall space will encounter Kire’s large-scale installation splashing colour, rhythm and movement across walls and ceilings in the museum’s main thoroughfare. The project marks ten years since the artist moved from the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane to pursue her creative career.
The installation responds directly to the architecture of City Hall and the surrounding cityscape visible from the museum. Kire describes being initially overwhelmed by the amount of space available but came to appreciate the character of the historic building, noting no two walls are the same with numerous different planes and angles shaping her approach to forms, colours and interactions.
Working within a heritage-listed building presented challenges including restrictions on what could and couldn’t be done to the space. Kire notes the most difficult aspect became developing the works digitally and translating scale from screen to real life, requiring adjustments to how forms, colours and interactions would exist in the physical space.
Approach and Philosophy
Renee Kire approaches Minimalism from a contemporary feminist perspective, themes that she says remain central to why she creates. These influences shape each project she undertakes, whether explicitly stated or operating beneath the surface. For this installation, thinking through Minimalist and feminist lenses guided the forms, colours and interactions she developed, encouraging repetition and inclusivity for all visitors.
The artist creates work intended to be accessible across ages and backgrounds rather than targeting specific audiences. Her two-year-old niece responds to colours while her grandmother appreciates composition and how different shapes interact. Kire hopes her work sparks curiosity for anyone who encounters it, whoever they are.
Her practice often encourages people to slow down and look closely at their surroundings. In the busy transitional space of the museum entrance, she hopes the forms and colours will catch attention and invite people to pause momentarily to notice details they might otherwise miss in a heritage building space many pass through without close observation.
Community Participation Element
Part of the installation will be co-created with the community through hands-on workshops during the residency period. Renee Kire says she looks forward to stepping back and seeing how people interpret the shapes and colours she has been immersed in over several months of development, noting the different ways people think and create when interacting with the work.
The workshops allow Brisbane residents to contribute directly to an artwork in one of the city’s most prominent cultural institutions, creating an element of shared ownership in the finished installation.
Museum of Brisbane Context
Museum of Brisbane occupies Level 3 of Brisbane City Hall at King George Square, serving as the city’s leading history and art museum. The institution presents exhibitions, events, workshops and tours exploring Brisbane’s art, culture and social history. The museum is open 10am to 5pm during weekdays and weekends with free general admission.
The Artist in Residency program, supported by Tim Fairfax AC, provides opportunities for artists to create site-specific works within the museum environment. The program demonstrates the museum’s commitment to supporting contemporary Brisbane artists while enhancing the visitor experience through temporary installations in museum spaces.
City Hall itself holds significance as one of Brisbane’s most recognisable heritage buildings in the CBD. The building’s distinctive clock tower and classical architecture make it a landmark for both visitors and residents navigating central Brisbane. The museum’s location within City Hall adds layers of historical context to contemporary art installations like Kire’s project.
Previous Work and Recognition
Renee Kire works from her East Brisbane studio creating sculptural forms that explore playful curves and interactions. Reviews of her previous exhibition at Rockhampton Museum of Art noted her consistent employment of large-scale aesthetics and soft pastel colour palettes.
Photo Credit: Rockchampton Museum of Art / Facebook
Her work has been compared to feminist minimalist sculpture, presenting what critics describe as a positive approach to domestic spaces through curves that invite interaction.
The curved prisms in her work require higher woodworking skills to create. Apart from some computer numerical control cutting, Kire painstakingly fashions the forms herself. Her constructions feature bends singular in direction and plane, with aspects twisted across additional axes by aligning consecutive sections at right angles, creating what observers describe as squiggle-like forms that could transport viewers back to childhood memories.
The Museum of Brisbane residency represents Kire’s largest and most public commission to date, positioning her work where thousands of visitors will encounter it as they access exhibitions and programs throughout the six-month installation period.
Repeat Visitor Experience
Because the work forms part of the museum’s everyday environment rather than a discrete exhibition, visitors may encounter it multiple times. Renee Kire hopes people experience the space the way she did while developing the work, discovering new details each visit in what might otherwise be an overlooked transitional area.
She notes that each time she spent time in the entrance during development, new details emerged including subtle shifts in light, repetitive nature of shapes, and small architectural features she had not noticed before. Repeat visits should allow people to discover these layers and notice something new each time they pass through.
The installation runs from March 6 through September 6, 2026, providing a substantial timeframe for both regular museum visitors and Brisbane CBD workers to engage with the work multiple times across changing seasons and light conditions.
Accessibility and Public Engagement
The entrance location ensures maximum visibility and accessibility for the installation. Unlike gallery-based exhibitions that require deliberate visits, Kire’s work will be encountered by everyone accessing Museum of Brisbane programs including school groups, tourists, families and regular visitors to City Hall.
This positioning aligns with broader movements in contemporary art practice toward engaging public audiences in everyday spaces rather than exclusively within traditional gallery contexts. The installation demonstrates how temporary public art can activate heritage buildings and enhance visitor experiences in cultural institutions.
For Fortitude Valley and Brisbane CBD residents who regularly visit City Hall for various civic purposes beyond museum attendance, the installation adds an element of visual interest and creative energy to a familiar heritage building. The work contributes to Brisbane’s identity as a city supporting contemporary artistic practice alongside preservation of historic architecture.
More information about the workshop is available here.
Fortitude Valley has welcomed a unique literary hub called Cursive Knives that trades mainstream bestsellers for a community-focused space dedicated to underrepresented authors and local creativity.
The shop began as a popular online community for readers and writers before moving into a physical storefront on Ann Street in late December. Unlike typical retail outlets, the shop specialises in “weird girl” literature and works from independent publishers that often struggle to find space on larger shelves.
The collection prioritises books by women, queer authors, and people of colour, offering a range of fiction, poetry, and art books that reflect a diverse range of voices.
Beyond its role as a bookstore, the space functions as a gathering point for the Brisbane creative scene. It hosts regular activities such as craft sessions, book clubs, and writing workshops to encourage locals to connect in person.
Specific programmes include a twelve-week course focused on the creative process and hands-on weekend workshops where participants can learn skills like making leather journals. This approach moves away from quick shopping and instead focuses on building a slow-paced, supportive environment for the neighbourhood.
The establishment of the shop marks a shift in the local area towards a more boutique and arts-focused district. Located on the traditional lands of the Turrbal and Yuggera peoples, the shop acknowledges the deep history of the region.
Fortitude Valley itself has changed significantly over the years, moving from its roots as a 19th-century settlement for immigrants into a busy nightlife area, and now into a centre for independent businesses.
While some industry experts suggest that only certain popular genres sell well, this local shop has seen a different result. The first batch of over one thousand books sold out much faster than expected, with many residents returning multiple times to support the venture. The shop’s name, which often confuses people looking for cutlery, is actually a nod to poetry and music. It joins several other independent bookstores that have recently appeared in the city, suggesting a growing local interest in physical books and shared creative experiences.
Fortitude Valley’s Wandoo Street is about to welcome a new regular, with Aunty — the latest venue from Brisbane’s Tassis Group. Locals first heard whispers about the modern Asian newcomer back in mid-2025, when plans to transform the former City Winery site at 11 Wandoo Street were revealed. Now, the countdown is properly on — bookings are live, trading hours are published, and the menu’s broad direction is now clear.
Aunty will open on 5 February 2026 as a roughly 400-square-metre dining destination built for both intimate catch-ups and bigger, celebratory outings, with capacity for around 100 guests. Design-wise, the venue will lean into a moody, polished look — deep greens, timbers and marble — with subtle nods to Cantonese culture, including references that evoke mahjong.
More importantly for Valley diners: Aunty is expected to trade 11:30 a.m. ’til late, seven days a week.
What’s on the menu?
While full menus tend to land closer to opening day, multiple sources have flagged the broad direction: modern Asian, anchored by Cantonese flavours and technique, plus a dedicated dim sum offering.
A few dishes are already being positioned as signatures, including:
Whole chilli mudcrab
Half duck two ways
Char siu pork neck
The menu is described as share-friendly, pairing dim sum with larger signature dishes designed for the centre of the table.
Drinks, lunch-to-late hours and a reason to arrive early
Aunty is also leaning heavily into its beverage program. The wine list spans around 250 labels, alongside cocktails drawing on Asian flavours.
The venue’s lunch-to-late trading hours suggest it’s aiming to suit both daytime diners and late-night crowds — and with interest building ahead of opening day, expect more detail (including the full menu and banquet options) to land closer to launch.
Bookings are already live via Aunty’s official site. For Wandoo Street, the opening adds another high-profile dining room to the strip — one built to run from lunch through late, every day of the week.
The approval of a 16-storey office tower on Robertson Street is likely to have impacts that extend well beyond the building site itself, reshaping how people move through and use one of Brisbane’s most tightly held inner-city precincts.
The $300 million project at 88 Robertson Street (DA A006677589) in December 2025 sits on a former industrial block in Fortitude Valley, a short walk from James Street’s retail strip and near Howard Smith Wharves. While the development adds new commercial space, urban planners say its greater significance lies in how it reinforces the precinct’s shift from a retail-only destination to a mixed-use neighbourhood.
Unlike traditional CBD office towers that empty after hours, the building is designed to bring a steady weekday population into the area, supporting cafés, retailers and hospitality venues beyond the weekend peak. Ground-level shops and a café-focused laneway are intended to link directly into the surrounding streets, potentially increasing foot traffic along quieter edges of the precinct.
The project also includes public-facing elements not typically associated with office developments, including a rooftop restaurant and event space and landscaped areas integrated throughout the building. These features reflect a broader planning trend in Brisbane, where new commercial buildings are increasingly expected to contribute to street life rather than operate as closed corporate environments.
Photo Credit: DA A006677589
For nearby residents and businesses, the development could help stabilise local trade during the working week, particularly as office attendance across Brisbane continues to recover. Industry data shows weekday office use is approaching pre-pandemic levels, prompting renewed interest in inner-city locations that offer walkability, dining and public transport access.
The site is located around 650 metres from the Valley Metro station and sits between established lifestyle hubs, positioning it as part of a growing corridor connecting the CBD to Fortitude Valley’s eastern edge. Urban designers involved in the project say extensive planting and shaded areas are intended to reduce heat and soften the building’s presence at street level, a key concern for residents in high-density neighbourhoods.
Construction is expected to begin in mid-2026, with completion forecast for mid-2028. While the building will introduce additional height and density, its approval signals continued confidence in James Street as a place where people don’t just shop or dine, but increasingly work, meet and spend large parts of their day.
As Brisbane continues to grow, developments like 88 Robertson highlight an ongoing shift in how inner-city areas are being planned — not as single-purpose precincts, but as layered neighbourhoods where work, lifestyle and community activity increasingly overlap.
