CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
A recent report by the Southern Industrial Registrar of the Juxtaposition of Occupants Versus Homeowners (SIRJOH) has found that Brisbane has only seen the construction of one high-rise building over the last decade that operates with over 4% of its intended occupancy.
‘1 William’ is a skyscraper the centre of Brisbane’s CBD and is the second tallest in the city at 259.8 metres. The ‘Gotham style’ office building is located on the North Bank, in close proximity to Parliament House andwas developed for the Queensland Government as part of the government’s plan for a renewed Government Administrative Precinct and to meet its accommodation demands.
This means that literally 99% of the building is made up of public servants, some of whom are responsible for signing off on the thousands of other high-rises that have been rushed through on the city fringe.
However, unlike the ever-growing cityscapes of under-utilised residential towers in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – ‘1 William’ was built solely as a workplace for government workers – which is a growing demographic that we apparently can’t get enough of – meaning it is full to the brim.
This is also means that ‘1 William’ is also the only tower that actually results in a financial return for its occupants. In the shape of tax-payer funded salaries, as opposed to rental payments.
It is believed that this report has been taken quite seriously by Premier Palaszczuk, who has called for an immediate inquiry into whether or not the empty residential towers in Woolloongabba and Newmarket can be repurposed as office towers for new, soon-to-be-invented government departments.
