80 Ann Street in Brisbane is breathing new life into the meaning of workplace. 

A premium commercial building with over 60,000 square metres of commercial office space across 35 levels, the tower will deliver flexibility and a high level of sustainability. Set to become one of the smartest buildings in Australia, 80 Ann Street combines Queensland authenticity with global thinking to create a world-class workplace for its tenants and an activated city precinct for the community. 

Brisbane’s CBD is shifting its focus towards the north quarter of the City, with 80 Ann Street at the nexus of the emerging new centre, sparking a revitalisation of the area alongside other new developments such as Brisbane Live, the redevelopment of Roma Street Station, and the Queen’s Wharf precinct. 

The vision for 80 Ann Street was co-created with pre-committed anchor tenant Suncorp, having secured over 40,000 square metres of space, representing approximately 65 per cent of the building’s total net lettable area. Suncorp will be joined by IWG’s Spaces co
-working business who will occupy over 6,100m2. 
Mirvac co-owns the site with M&G Real Estate, one of the world’s leading financial solutions providers for real estate investors.

Iconic, quintessentially Brisbane design

80 Ann Street will revitalise the historic Brisbane Fruit & Produce Exchange on Turbot Street to create a new iconic destination in a dynamic CBD precinct. Global design firm, Woods Bagot, collaborated with Mirvac and Suncorp to seamlessly integrate the tower into the surrounding neighbourhood creating a ‘city within a building.’

Reflecting the site’s place and environment, Woods Bagot has designed an office tower that is quintessentially Queensland. With an abundance of natural light and air as a key attribute, the design draws on the architecture of a typical Queenslander style home – so well suited to the Brisbane climate. 

Tenants will enter the building through the urban garden, which is part of the public domain, up the stairs, and onto the verandah. An operable façade flanks the level 1 verandah providing connection to the urban garden below and allowing natural light and air to permeate the building. 

The verandah is also replicated on two of Suncorp’s office floors, where the façade has been peeled back to create a terrace space with natural ventilation creating a new type of building that breathes. There is also a rooftop terrace with natural vegetation, which will be a flexible communal space. 

A reimagined marketplace 

Reviving the historic, bustling Brisbane Fruit & Produce Exchange on Turbot Street, Mirvac is creating a next-generation marketplace activated through an urban retail lane, enabling locations to host events as well as provideing shared spaces, and public art that will create a unique destination for the City. 

Focused on emphasising collaboration, connectivity, and community, the precinct will have 1,900sqm of public space, with a porous design and a cross-block link from City Hall and Ann Street through to Turbot Street and the Law Courts beyond. This amplifies pedestrian connectivity through public laneways and thoroughfares, maximising flexibility, permeability. An abundance of natural light and green leafy landscaping with 100% Native Australian planting will create an urban garden oasis, improving employee and visitor wellbeing through a connection to nature.

The design of the 80 Ann Street contrasts the rawness of the heritage marketplace with an ultra-modern tower to reawaken a significant piece of Queensland history. The podium level has a pitched roof structure paying homage to the original roof form of the marketplace and drawing on the story of the markets from Turbot Street to be celebrated on Ann Street. 

To foster community at 80 Ann Street, Mirvac has developed an activation strategy for the building, which encompasses activities during construction and into completion through a variety of programmed experiences, events, and entertainment. 

The programme is already underway with a unique public art installation on the hoarding of 80 Ann Street. The activation was developed in partnership with Vast Yonder as part of Brisbane’s Street Art Festival and saw four local Brisbane street artists create large-scale artworks on the hoarding that will remain in place until building completion in 2022.

A new tech-enabled way of working

Mirvac will deliver a truly flexible workplace at 80 Ann Street, with some of the largest tower floorplates in Brisbane, at 2,200 square metres, with the ability to accommodate up to 275 people per floor.

80 Ann Street will become home to Suncorp’s employees from three Brisbane CBD offices, improving the company’s connectivity, efficiency, and productivity. 

A key workplace requirement for Suncorp was the ability to quickly expand its workforce to respond to increased customer support needs during unpredictable events such as natural disasters. In a unique design, Mirvac has married premium services with ultimate flexibility via the creation of multiple highly adaptable floors in the podium level of the building. This flexibility allows Suncorp to accommodate an increase in density up to one person per four square metres, doubling their workforce across these floors.  

A co-working offering will be available in the building to provide additional flexible space for all tenants. 

80 Ann Street will be one of the most intelligent buildings in Australia, delivering services beyond a premium level to future-proof the workplace. Mirvac’s unique integrated model allows every aspect of the building to be pushed to provide the highest level of technology right up to completion in 2022. The tower will have an Integrated Communications Network for all base building services that will facilitate better building management and enable tenants to access real time data and control their fitout IT and services in a fully integrated manner.

Wellbeing and sustainability

The precinct will be a place for people to thrive and perform at their best with wellness integrated throughout the workplace, including best-in-class end-of-trip facilities, bike parking, e-scooter storage locations and lockers. The tower will also have 120 car parking spaces, electric vehicle charging stations in its basement, and a smart visitor management system to enhance the customer experience.

As an exemplar of modern workplaces, 80 Ann Street is targeting a 6 Star Green Star, 5 Star NABERS Energy, and 4 Star NABERS Water ratings as well as a Gold Shell and Core WELL Certification.

Progress

Construction is currently underway at 80 Ann Street, with the building progressing through COVID-19 and employing an average of 300 workers onsite each day. To date, over 2,500 tonnes of reinforced steel has been installed, with practical completion expected for 2022.