A City Reconnected to Its River

Queen’s Wharf Brisbane is a city-shaping urban renewal project that transforms one of Brisbane’s most significant waterfront sites into a connected mixed-use precinct. Located between the CBD grid, the Brisbane River, South Bank, major transport infrastructure and a collection of heritage buildings, the project turns a once-fragmented river edge into a new public destination for the city.

The masterplan is grounded in a clear civic ambition: to reconnect Brisbane with its river. More than one kilometre of riverfront has been reimagined as a publicly accessible place, with new routes linking George Street, William Street, the river edge, South Bank, the Botanic Gardens and surrounding pedestrian and cycle networks.

The $3.6B precinct brings together public realm, hotels, residential living, retail, food and beverage, entertainment, event spaces, gaming, heritage buildings and major infrastructure within a single urban framework. Its scale is substantial, but its success lies in how these uses are integrated rather than simply co-located.

Queen’s Wharf Brisbane includes 185,000sqm of mixed-use GBA, more than 75,000sqm of public realm, 40,000sqm of retail, food and beverage and entertainment areas, three luxury hotel brands, approximately 850 hotel keys and residential living. Consolidated servicing and back-of-house infrastructure support the precinct’s complex operations while preserving a clear and generous public experience.

Queen’s Wharf Brisbane is defined by vertical urbanism. The site’s constraints — including a seven-metre level change, the Riverside Expressway and multiple city blocks — are transformed into a layered public realm that works above, below and across infrastructure.

Public life is not confined to street level. It rises through the precinct via laneways, terraces, podium levels, bridges, the Brisbane Steps, the Leisure Deck and the Sky Deck. This creates a layered urban experience where movement, landscape, retail and hospitality are connected across levels.

Retail is integrated as a key anchor of the masterplan and a driver of public experience. Rather than creating a standalone shopping centre, Queen’s Wharf Brisbane embeds retail, food and beverage, entertainment and luxury heritage retail across laneways, plazas, podium levels, river terraces and elevated destinations.

The precinct includes 40,000sqm of retail, food and beverage and entertainment areas, supporting a diverse mix of luxury retail, destination dining, event space and public activation.

The complexity of Queen’s Wharf Brisbane required a highly coordinated masterplanning and delivery strategy. The project had to balance commercial feasibility, public benefit, heritage protection, infrastructure constraints, operational logistics and long-term civic value.

The masterplan integrates four towers above a seven-storey podium and five basement levels, with hotels, residential apartments, retail, ballroom, gaming, food and beverage, public realm and consolidated back-of-house operations working together. Shared infrastructure supports major precinct operations, including more than 2,400 staff per day across three shifts, 20 loading bays and 36,000sqm of dedicated shared infrastructure, including 16,000sqm of staff and back-of-house areas.

The urban design approach is based on permeability, legibility and continuity. The precinct stitches together streets, laneways, plazas, terraces, bridges and riverfront spaces into a continuous pedestrian network. These connections overcome the historic separation between city and river, allowing people to move intuitively across a previously difficult site.

Built form is shaped to support this network. Curvilinear towers respond to the Brisbane River’s geometry, while podiums and setbacks engage the scale and grain of the heritage streetscape. Seven heritage buildings are retained and integrated as active urban anchors, supported by respectful contrast, material restraint and public programming.