Mirvac Sells Flood-Ravaged Toombul Site to Irvine Group

Mirvac’s exit from the flood-ravaged Toombul shopping centre project has opened the door for a locally based developer to move in and restore long-awaited retail amenity to the site. Brisbane-based Irvine Property Group has exchanged contracts to acquire the former Toombul shopping centre site from Mirvac for a figure understood to be less than $100 million, reflecting a rate of less than $1000 per square metre. Mirvac acquired Toombul for $233 million in 2016. The site was inundated during the disastrous 2022 floods. The transaction, signed unconditionally on November 7, will transfer the 10ha site and four additional parcels on Macefield Street to the Queensland developer, which is planning a retail-led mixed-use development starting with a new shopping centre. The centre was demolished over a 12-month period starting in early 2024 , with the site valued at around $95 million after the flood . Irvine Group managing director Michael Irvine said the company had been pursuing the opportunity for two years. “We’ve been working on it for probably two years really, since it first popped up,” he told The Urban Developer . “Since February it’s really ramped up and it’s been a pretty thorough process with Mirvac.” The developer’s strategy centres on staged delivery, prioritising retail activation before residential components. “We want to get in there, get the retail going, create the amenity and then look at the residential component after that,” Irvine said. Settlement is slated for before Christmas. A community consultation is planned for 2026 with a development application expected to be filed in the first half of the year. The initial stage would include a shopping centre comprising a supermarket, specialty stores, discount department stores and mini-majors. Irvine said the company’s local advantage and access to internal resources had been pivotal in securing the site. “We believe we bought it for good value,” he said. “There are constraints on the site, but being a nimble, privately owned, Brisbane-based family business, we believe we can make it work and see significant advantages that we can add.” ▲ Irvine Group’s BMI resource recovery business can provide in-house civil works capability critical for the site. “The site needs civil works,” Irvine said. “It is flood affected but Mirvac has done a lot of work. “Having the BMI resource recovery business and the in-house experience to assist with the constraints on the site gives us the ability to do that pretty efficiently.” Mirvac’s decision to divest reflects a strategic shift under its current leadership. The national developer acquired regional shopping centres under a previous chief executive, but the Toombul project’s residential focus and remediation requirements no longer aligned with corporate priorities after the 2022 floods. Mirvac chief executive Campbell Hanan said the sale was a difficult decision, citing the scale and remediation demands. “We acknowledge the community’s strong interest in seeing a new shopping centre built on this site,” Hanan said. “Over the past few years, we’ve completed demolition across the site, and worked closely with Brisbane City Council and other authorities to progress planning, reaching agreement on critical issues including traffic, building heights and the flood solution, as well as in principle support on a draft masterplan.” The Urban Developer can confirm that Urbis has been engaged for planning. The architectural team is yet to be finalised. While current designs potentially propose an eight-storey development, consistent with surrounding centres such as Indooroopilly, Irvine stressed the company’s commitment to community engagement. “We are local. It’s our backyard and getting this sorted will be our number one focus,” he said. “We appreciate there’s a hole and that’s why we’re focusing on getting that first stage of the shopping centre back up and running.” The application would be code assessable, enabling staged rollout over coming years while addressing flood mitigation measures that would benefit both the site and regional drainage networks.

Mirvac Sells Flood-Ravaged Toombul Site to Irvine Group

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