Geonicle

A DESTINATION OF DISTINCTION

Geon Property has lodged two development applications for Albion Exchange – one of Queensland’s largest inner-city urban redevelopments in recent years. Albion Exchange is set to bring new life to surplus and underutilised land near Albion train station.

Submitted to Brisbane City Council in August and October respectively, our stage one and masterplan applications seek approval for a transformative, mixed-use development spanning four-hectares of land, with the Albion Train Station at the heart of the renewal.

Before lodging the development applications, Geon Property held community events and distributed project material, reaching more than 10,000 community stakeholders. We shared our vision and we learned more about what the community needs and wants.

We have also coordinated several collaborative design workshops with experts including disability and accessibility advocates; urban planning, architecture and landscape design professionals, communication and brand specialists together with public transport user representatives.

All of this input has been invaluable in helping us to shape future plans.

Stage one will feature two slender, glass-clad residential buildings standing prominently above commercial and retail space. However, it’s the public open space features of Albion Exchange which we believe will be the defining elements. Stage one covers 6,458 sqm and more than 4,900 sqm of this space will be public open space for community use.

Beyond stage 1, the overall masterplan creates opportunities to meet future community needs, and may feature uses such as education, health care, child care, retirement living and aged care facilities, residential housing, retail tenancies, together with high-quality dining and lifestyle facilities.

Albion Exchange will create a new common ground for Albion, bring a new vibrancy to the suburb, and indeed broader north Brisbane.

What’s next?

We want Albion Exchange to be a dynamic, diverse and contemporary community hub which is why, over the next few months, we will be consulting with local businesses to include them in our site visioning process. This will help us understand the commercial drivers, which will underpin the success of Albion Exchange, and also ensure that we contribute to the revitalisation of commerce in Albion generally.

We have also presented our proposal to all three levels of government and will continue to liaise with authorities and advocacy groups, such as Bicycle Queensland, to see how we can deliver the best and most accessible outcome for Albion.

For more information, visit the Albion Exchange website. You can also listen to Geon Property CEO Ben Griffin’s interview on ABC Breakfast radio here.

IT’S RETAIL ALL THE WAY FOR GEON PROPERTY IN TOWNSVILLE

It is all systems go for retail in Townsville with Geon Property receiving development approval for the new $33m Riverway Plaza and the signing of new tenants for Fairfield Homemaker Centre in Idalia.

Riverway Plaza development manager Julia Foster-Massie said stage one of the Manolis family-owned project was due for completion in late 2019 with the centre featuring a new 3,500m² Woolworths supermarket, two specialty stores and a drive-thru fast-food tenant.

Negotiations have commenced with local builder Phoenix Constructions.

With stage one due for completion in 2019, plans are already underway for construction of stage two which will deliver an additional 1600m² of supporting specialty retail. Stage two is due for completion in mid-2020.

Meanwhile, mixed-homewares retailer Lincraft has opened a 1,000m² concept store in stage two of Fairfield Homemaker Centre at Idalia, alongside Tradelink and Nutrition Warehouse. Queensland X-Ray and Cyrus Rugs will also join the major retailers when it opens early next year.

To celebrate this major milestone, the centre launched the holiday season with a family fun night on Thursday 29 November. The event included extended shopping hours and instore promotions, food trucks, free entertainment and a visit from none other than Santa Claus himself.

THE CHANGING FACE OF LARGE FORMAT RETAIL

One of the key attributes of our people is curiosity.  We encourage every team member to explore, investigate and invest in lifelong learning. In keeping with this spirit, development manager Glen Wright was recently awarded an opportunity to tour Japan after winning the 2018 LFRA (Large Format Retail Association) Overseas Study Tour Scholarship.

Here, Glen shares with us three lessons he learnt from Japan’s large format retail and infrastructure landscape.

Lesson 1 – A decline in population growth doesn’t mean a decline in retail

Japan’s population growth rate has been declining since the early 1970s – and the deficit isn’t being made up by significant levels of immigration as it is in some other nations.

Despite these demographic pressures, Japan’s retail economy is growing. According to CBRE, Tokyo has a 96 per cent occupancy rate. After many decades facing a large deficit in tourism, Japan is now back in business thanks largely to travelling Chinese tourists who are contributing to the country’s retail account surplus.

Lesson 2 – Entice shoppers upwards

The floor space demands of international retailers continue to grow but they face increasing restrictions on available space, at least with retail in its current format. Nowhere is this more evident than in Tokyo. However, Japan has adopted “vertical retailing”, and is enticing shoppers upwards by placing food and beverage outlets in top floor tenancies. Watch this space. It may be a sign of things to come in Australia.

Lesson 3 – Concentrating growth around transport hubs does more than finance capital infrastructure

The concept of mobility is one of the important preconditions for urban planning and when it comes to interconnectivity, Tokyo is top of the class. By encouraging private industry and transit operators to collaborate, Japan has facilitated the development of more dense mixed-use areas around transit stations that make a great contribution to place-making and city community building.

GEONERGY LAUNCH

The prevalence of internal wellness programs is increasing as employers recognise the benefits they provide, not only to individual staff wellbeing but also to the business’ bottom line.  The World Health Organisation directly links the success of a business to the health of its workers, stating positive effects of these programs include an increase in productivity and decrease in absenteeism^[i].

With a key focus of Geon’s business being our people, we care greatly about our team’s personal wellness and as a result have developed “Geonergy”. [read more]

Geonergy is a wellness program designed to support our people to be the best version of themselves – both inside and outside of the office. The program has been met with an enthusiastic response from the team and is based on four key pillars:

• Mindfulness
• Yoga
• Nutrition
• Exercise

These elements work in sync to create an all-round approach to wellness and equip our people with the skills to better manage stress and maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle. The program is voluntary and will run fortnightly comprising a variety of activities including cooking classes, nutrition talks, yoga, team fitness sessions and mindfulness training.

[i] Healthy Workplaces: a model for action, World Health Organization 2010

QUEENSLAND RETAIL EXPANSION

As the demand for innovative retail management grows, Geon’s portfolio has expanded to include two additional Queensland centres; Springwood Shopping Mall and Morningside Central.

Springwood Shopping Mall is a fully airconditioned, subregional shopping centre located 20km south of the Brisbane CBD just off the Pacific Motorway. Adjacent to the Springwood bus interchange featuring shaded on grade and basement car parking, the centre provides great convenience for shoppers.

The centre is anchored by a full line Woolworths supermarket and Target discount department store with 50 specialty stores including EB Games, Flight Centre, Australia Post, National Australia Bank, Millers and Suzanne Grae.

Morningside Central is a convenience based open-air centre anchored by a bustling full line Woolworths supermarket. The retail mix is predominately service-related, including National Australia Bank, medical centre, pharmacy, dentist, deli and greengrocer.

The centre is easily accessible featuring a large, on grade carpark with shade sail protection and bus stops connecting consumers to Brisbane’s CBD. It’s prominent location on the corner of Junction and Wynnum Roads provides high foot traffic and customer exposure.

A DESTINATION OF DISTINCTION

Geon Property has lodged two development applications for Albion Exchange – one of Queensland’s largest inner-city urban redevelopments in recent years. Albion Exchange is set to bring new life to surplus and underutilised land near Albion train station.

Submitted to Brisbane City Council in August and October respectively, our stage one and masterplan applications seek approval for a transformative, mixed-use development spanning four-hectares of land, with the Albion Train Station at the heart of the renewal.

Before lodging the development applications, Geon Property held community events and distributed project material, reaching more than 10,000 community stakeholders. We shared our vision and we learned more about what the community needs and wants.

We have also coordinated several collaborative design workshops with experts including disability and accessibility advocates; urban planning, architecture and landscape design professionals, communication and brand specialists together with public transport user representatives.

All of this input has been invaluable in helping us to shape future plans.

Stage one will feature two slender, glass-clad residential buildings standing prominently above commercial and retail space. However, it’s the public open space features of Albion Exchange which we believe will be the defining elements. Stage one covers 6,458 sqm and more than 4,900 sqm of this space will be public open space for community use.

Beyond stage 1, the overall masterplan creates opportunities to meet future community needs, and may feature uses such as education, health care, child care, retirement living and aged care facilities, residential housing, retail tenancies, together with high-quality dining and lifestyle facilities.

Albion Exchange will create a new common ground for Albion, bring a new vibrancy to the suburb, and indeed broader north Brisbane.

What’s next?

We want Albion Exchange to be a dynamic, diverse and contemporary community hub which is why, over the next few months, we will be consulting with local businesses to include them in our site visioning process. This will help us understand the commercial drivers, which will underpin the success of Albion Exchange, and also ensure that we contribute to the revitalisation of commerce in Albion generally.

We have also presented our proposal to all three levels of government and will continue to liaise with authorities and advocacy groups, such as Bicycle Queensland, to see how we can deliver the best and most accessible outcome for Albion.

For more information, visit the Albion Exchange website. You can also listen to Geon Property CEO Ben Griffin’s interview on ABC Breakfast radio here.

IT’S RETAIL ALL THE WAY FOR GEON PROPERTY IN TOWNSVILLE

It is all systems go for retail in Townsville with Geon Property receiving development approval for the new $33m Riverway Plaza and the signing of new tenants for Fairfield Homemaker Centre in Idalia.

Riverway Plaza development manager Julia Foster-Massie said stage one of the Manolis family-owned project was due for completion in late 2019 with the centre featuring a new 3,500m² Woolworths supermarket, two specialty stores and a drive-thru fast-food tenant.

Negotiations have commenced with local builder Phoenix Constructions.

With stage one due for completion in 2019, plans are already underway for construction of stage two which will deliver an additional 1600m² of supporting specialty retail. Stage two is due for completion in mid-2020.

Meanwhile, mixed-homewares retailer Lincraft has opened a 1,000m² concept store in stage two of Fairfield Homemaker Centre at Idalia, alongside Tradelink and Nutrition Warehouse. Queensland X-Ray and Cyrus Rugs will also join the major retailers when it opens early next year.

To celebrate this major milestone, the centre launched the holiday season with a family fun night on Thursday 29 November. The event included extended shopping hours and instore promotions, food trucks, free entertainment and a visit from none other than Santa Claus himself.

THE CHANGING FACE OF LARGE FORMAT RETAIL

One of the key attributes of our people is curiosity.  We encourage every team member to explore, investigate and invest in lifelong learning. In keeping with this spirit, development manager Glen Wright was recently awarded an opportunity to tour Japan after winning the 2018 LFRA (Large Format Retail Association) Overseas Study Tour Scholarship.

Here, Glen shares with us three lessons he learnt from Japan’s large format retail and infrastructure landscape.

Lesson 1 – A decline in population growth doesn’t mean a decline in retail

Japan’s population growth rate has been declining since the early 1970s – and the deficit isn’t being made up by significant levels of immigration as it is in some other nations.

Despite these demographic pressures, Japan’s retail economy is growing. According to CBRE, Tokyo has a 96 per cent occupancy rate. After many decades facing a large deficit in tourism, Japan is now back in business thanks largely to travelling Chinese tourists who are contributing to the country’s retail account surplus.

Lesson 2 – Entice shoppers upwards

The floor space demands of international retailers continue to grow but they face increasing restrictions on available space, at least with retail in its current format. Nowhere is this more evident than in Tokyo. However, Japan has adopted “vertical retailing”, and is enticing shoppers upwards by placing food and beverage outlets in top floor tenancies. Watch this space. It may be a sign of things to come in Australia.

Lesson 3 – Concentrating growth around transport hubs does more than finance capital infrastructure

The concept of mobility is one of the important preconditions for urban planning and when it comes to interconnectivity, Tokyo is top of the class. By encouraging private industry and transit operators to collaborate, Japan has facilitated the development of more dense mixed-use areas around transit stations that make a great contribution to place-making and city community building.