The new indoor arena at Woolloongabba will have 17,000 seats and be ready in time for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games. The part of the site on which the Gabba is located will be redeveloped into housing and retail after the Games.
The two consortiums are the Brisbane Entertainment Alliance Consortium, which includes Capella Capital, Lendlease, AEG and Legends Global, and the Gather Brisbane Consortium which includes Plenary Group, Live Nation and OVG. The pair were selected out of a total of eight bids for the project.
Capella Capital, Lendlease and Legends Global were all part of the consortium that delivered Sydney’s convention centre, ICC Sydney. Legends Global also operates Brisbane Entertainment Centre out at Boondall, which is set to be replaced by the new inner-city arena after 2032. The company had previously had an agreement with the government for another arena in a different part of the city, before the project was scrapped as part of new Olympic venue plans established since the Liberal Government came to power in the state.
Meanwhile Plenary Group and Live Nation are part of the consortium that has just been shortlisted as the singular proponent to deliver a new arena on the Gold Coast, also in time for the 2032 Olympics.
Plenary Group is just finishing up work on Nyaal Banyul Geelong Convention and Event Centre and has already delivered the neighbouring Crowne Plaza Geelong.
“The Gabba Entertainment and Housing Precinct is a once-in-a-generation development that will transform Brisbane and leave an economic, cultural and social legacy well beyond the 2032 Games,” said Queensland’s Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie.
“We are partnering with the private sector to deliver this exciting new housing and entertainment precinct right in the heart of our capital city.”
Drilling has begun on the site to test the ground conditions. A timeline of the project suggests a consortium will be selected by the end of the year.
In other Games related news, Brisbane’s Olympics now has no carbon target, with Bleijie telling the Queensland Press Club this week that he had carbon commitments removed from the contract with the International Olympic Committee. He also said that minimising carbon emissions from the Games wasn’t a priority and would cause Olympic infrastructure to cost more.
“Our priority is concrete, building stuff, getting it done and opening it up before 2032,” he said.
When Brisbane won the bid to host the Games in 2021, the Australian event was promised to be the first carbon positive Olympic Games.
