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Check out the latest video listing on Space Hero. One One One Eagle stands grandly over the Brisbane River and is positioned directly in the heart of the business centre - it is the herald of the CDB. This central location is the ideal springboard for prolonged success and growth; designed with green sustainable design considerations at the forefront of environmentally conscience architecture. One One One prides itself on aesthetic design, unparalleled riverside location, admirable green rating and a prominent urban presence. It is the latest tower to grace the iconic capital city’s skyline and would suit the progressive tenant who places a high value on social and business connectivity.

Space Hero offers a wide variety of property listings including Brisbane Commercial Real Estate. Visit our home page for more information.

There are many reasons why property searching is so much better on Space Hero. It is consistently up-to-date and has a ‘one listing per property’ policy. The site is clean, easy to navigate and features some of Brisbane’s biggest and best upcoming commercial properties.

Our biggest point of difference is that Space Hero features video on three out of four of our online listing packages. 

Video is proven to increase sales conversions and interactivity in online advertising. Many studies have been completed in relation to consumers purchasing behaviours when provided with video as opposed to those who are not. In some tests it was found that conversion rates increased at an average rate of 30% for listings that include video, with total increases ranging from 12% to 115% across the board (Practical Ecommerce, November 2008).  

Space Hero provides an unrivalled experience in the commercial property market, giving users an engaging and educational view that ultimately provides them with a better knowledge and understanding of available properties. As an agent, you will see an increase in the time a user spends on your individual property listing. This longer time will amount to a more educated and engaged user, and one who is up to 85% more likely to enquire.

Search now for commercial properties including offices, industrial warehouses, land and more at through the Space Hero homepage.

Space Hero Commercial real estate offers a wide variety of property listings. Visit our home page for more information.

It really has been another horrific week. Japan suffered a terrible earthquake and Tsunami, the results of which have encouraged public debate about any future plans for Nuclear Power in Australia.

This is, and will continue to be, a heady debate for all involved, especially when disaster strikes and we can see the adverse effects of such technology. What we have seen throughout these arguments is that true ‘NIMBY-ism’ that so many suburban-dwelling Australians display.

NIMBYs (Not-in-my-backyard) are viewed as serial pests by Politians and developers looking to make changes to typically suburban areas in and around Australian’s capital cities. And while their roadside protest signs and attendance at ‘Community Development’ events might be unpopular with those on the other side of the argument, are their protests warranted?

In most areas of life, we welcome educated debate on topics that affect the community, from school debates to federal elections, but there is something about the NIMBY debate that incites anger in both sides of the table. In over-simplified terms, we might say that it’s a tradition versus innovation debate, and that everyone recognizes the both importance of innovation, and the significance of keeping traditions alive.

We’ve spoken in this blog before about the general community’s defiance in relation to gentrification of areas and resident’s fears that everywhere will start to look the same. So surely, talks about what should be allowed and what shouldn’t, does warrant community debate.

NIMBY incites such negative connotations, but it must be remembered that in actual fact the council and state government could resume land or make plans without consultation if they wanted to, but that they constantly allow for community participation in this debate.

If nothing else, these passionate community members keep developers and local governments aware of what the local population expects from them – perhaps we should be thanking them for dong the hard work for us!

Space Hero offers a wide variety of commercial real estate. Visit our home page for more details.

From Kingsford Smith Drive to the Gateway, and hugging the Brisbane River, is the Urban Development area of Hamilton Northshore. And why not? With unrivalled access to the port of Brisbane, 8kms to the airport and 4kms to the Brisbane CBD, Hamilton is prime position for an inner-city upgrade.

One of Brisbane’s oldest suburbs and home to some of Brisbane’s priciest real estate, the aim to include affordable housing into the developments seems like a long shot. When Leighton and Devine collaborated on one of the first developments to be approved for the area, many assumed it would include luxurious apartments and ‘A’ Grade office space that could only be described as aspirational. So, when word hit the street that the development would include apartments from $339,000 as well as small retail opportunities, the project received some serious buzz.

It didn’t take long for Leighton and Devine to release a statement to say that the property had reached its funding goals with huge amounts of interest registered in the property from early on. The development houses:

432 Apartments (including affordable housing)
1,000sqm park/green space for residents, tenants and visitors
31,000sqm of lettable ‘A’ Grade commercial space

With all of the affordable accommodation being snapped up first, leaving only prestige units left, we’ll be interested to see residents thoughts about the new supply of housing to the otherwise established area. It seems that residents are already relishing in the high quality dining and retail options that surrounding developments have provided, but how many new retail stores can an area take before it starts to affect some of the established store owners and tenants? Racecourse Road has been a favorite retail jaunt amongst locals and visitors for many years, offering high-end fashion and dining outlets that have become stalwarts in the area. One would hope that the retailers and restaurateurs will be positively affected, and the entire area will become even more well-known for its precincts. Conversely, we have all seen the results of oversupply and how that contributes to more storeowners having less custom.

Plans show that with more workers and more residents coming to the area to fill the upcoming projects that this should in fact compensate for the increased local business numbers. And surely, after coming out of a gloomy couple of years, it may just be retail’s time to shine!

Space Hero has a huge range of Brisbane commercial property listings. Visit our home page for more information.

 Fresh Food markets have been part of Brisbane’s history for over 140 years. The central fruit and vegetable market was established on a site on the corner of Turbot Street and Roma Street ion 1864 and since then Brisbane has had a singular destination for the distribution of fresh goods throughout the city, and state.

In 1958 the state government formed a committee to have the site moved to a bigger block, at Rocklea. At the time, traders and customers had an aversion to the idea because of the travelling distance from the CBD, the lack of roads and the cost of moving. They did move in 1964, and soon afterwards all appeared to be well with the traders and shoppers showing appreciation for the bigger spaces and better planning that went into making this more modern facility.

So for the last 47 years, the Brisbane markets have been trading from Rocklea, and their website still states that the only time the markets went without trading was during the 1974 floods. Unfortunately, this year, during another round of horrific floods, it happened again.

Restaurant, grocery and distribution businesses went without fresh produce for weeks. Millions of dollars worth of valuable food was lost.

This raises some bigger questions. Where does this leave the markets now? Rocklea is known to be a flood plain and no amount of flood mitigating could save a disaster of this size again.

Suggestions have been made that the markets be moved – but where to? A land parcel further out of the city would mean more travel for distributers, and possibly less custom for family users. The site would need to be re-constructed, and who would foot the $300 Million bill? If the government is concerned about the continuing problems at the current site – should they bear the costs of a relocation and rebuild?

News sites have been swamped with opinions saying that areas such as Rocklea should be left as flood plains and used for more low impact activities like sporting fields or farm land. So is this an opinion shared only by those who believe in climate change?

What do you think? Do you believe that floods like the ones we suffered this year could occur again? And if so, should we etter safeguard against them, not by flood mitigation strategies, but by moving businesses and homes to higher ground?

Space Hero provies a huge range of Brisbane commercial real estate. Visit our home page for more information.

We’ve spoken a lot on this blog about the many urban renewal projects that are planned for South-East Queensland in the coming years and about the public’s perception and acceptance of these.

And while some may not agree with Queensland’s seemingly aggressive plans to halt urban sprawl, most would understand the main reasons why urban redevelopment keeps appearing as the solution to our current issues.

One of the major points that has been spoken about is our lagging public transport system and how the State Government plans to transform it into a well-planned and highly-usable system in the future. Plans such as the new ‘Cross-River Rail’ project would have provided several new train stations to major urban renewal areas around the CBD and Fringe such as Boggo Road, Bowen Hills and Woolloongabba.

After announcing the new plans late last year, Premier Anna Bligh projected that this particular endeavour would be completed by 2016, when studies showed that the city would require it. Unfortunately, as expected, plans for this major project, and many more, have been put on hold after both the QLD floods and Cyclone Yasi. Experts now say that it will be at least 2020 before we see these projects nearing completion.

So, Brisbane will have to wait longer for the new Albert Street station and other public transport niceties that many were looking forward to. However, what was not originally predicted, but is now being spoken about, is that private sector developments planned for these urban renewal areas will now also be put on hold, as their major drawcard was their proximity to major transport hubs.

Image courtesy of Brisbane Times.

The Government, both State and Federal, will be pumping many millions of dollars into the cleanup process and the redevelopment of our beautiful state after these terrible disasters. Major redevelopment projects will continue to be put on hold when compared to the well-being of those who have lost homes and businesses in these events.

So, with that in mind, do you agree or disagree with a Disaster Tax that allows for events like this, and frees the Government to go ahead with projects that will further develop our communities? At the moment, every time something such as this happens Governments are being thrown into huge debt and are unable to complete projects that the community has perhaps planned ahead for.

Space Hero provides Brisbane commercial real estate listings. Visit our home page for more information.

Milton's Tennis Center in the Good Old Days

Milton’s previous tennis centre site has been a sight for sore eyes for many years. Having been purchased as a development site by Seymour Properties almost 10 years ago, the land received an application to become a mixed-use development. However, in recent times, the Brisbane City Council has decided to obtain the land (either by purchase or resumption) to use as inner-city parkland.

At last report, Seymour properties were more than happy to sell the land back to the council. So, at a council, and therefore ratepayer cost of around $22 Million, it is understandable that many citizens, who live both locally and in Brisbane’s outskirts, are opposed to this move. As a city whose long-term plan is to move to medium and high-density dwellings in order to remove cars from busy inbound arterials, it seems an unusual shift by the council to move in this very different direction.

Anyone who has driven past the site in the past ten years would know that the site has been anything but maintained, and would possibly have also seen the protest signs posted by residents who were against high density commercial or residential development in the area.

What is funny though, is that whether it is high-density commercial space, medium density residential, a retail centre or extensive parkland for local residents – everyone seems to be opposed. It would seem as though the council can’t win.

As a warning for the future, perhaps the council could recognize that there is a difference between angering residents over development, which seems to be as sure as death and taxes, and angering residents over where their rates are spent around the city. They truly are two completely different beasts.

On the flip side and as a heads-up for developers, purchasing large lots of land in controversial areas could prove to bring a windfall in years to come!

So what do you think? Should the site be parkland and green space for residents and visitors, or commercial/retail and residential space to accommodate Brisbane’s housing shortage?

Brisbane workers had barely unpacked from their summer holidays when the mighty river burst its banks in a most spectacular way.

Following years of folklore surrounding the 1974 floods and the constant reminders that it ‘could never happen again’, the shock of these latest floods was proved greater due to their unexpected nature. Now, after a couple of weeks worth of cleaning up, hundreds of thousands of volunteers and 150,000 tonnes of rubbish and debris moved to landfill – all that remains, are questions.

Whilst the public pose questions to each other around the water cooler, online news sources pose the questions though speculative reports and opinion pieces. Do we blame Mother Nature, or those responsible for dam releases at Wivenhoe? Should property owners in flood-prone areas be insured for these latest floods? Should the Insurance companies be more accountable for people’s losses when they truly believed that they were covered? Should the rest of the nation start paying the proposed Natural Disaster Tax so that the Government can afford to pay clean-up costs?

News websites and blogs have been running rife with questions and comments regarding these and so many other topics over the last few weeks, proving again that online media is not only where a lot of people get their news, but where readers can have conversations about what they are reading and viewing.

Many believe that social networking was as its best during the flood period with many people able to check in on flood affected family members and friends through Facebook while phone lines were down, and send out offers to help through Twitter. It was during the worst possible time, that these mediums truly excelled, pulling together a nation of people and giving everyone an opportunity to share their experiences and troubles, and to find and lend a hand to those who needed it.

It is natural for people to question ‘why?’ after such a huge blow to the community. Discussing issues with others makes us both question and affirm our opinions and causes us to be more particular about where we gain our information. So now, in the wake of this horrible disaster these online articles are followed by sometimes hundreds of comments from regular citizens and aspiring writers sharing their opinions on where we go from here.

It is as though the anonymity of comment sections brings out the best and worst of people. Writers state things that need to be discussed but that they may not feel comfortable saying in a public forum. And at the other end of the scale, things are said which maybe are not necessary. Uneducated, sweeping statements that could cause hurt to those at which whom it is aimed.

Such is the nature of the beast.

It has been truly amazing to see the digital medium both excel and disappoint in times of trouble. Obviously our online selves are a reflection of our human selves and as such a pure reflection of the human condition. Humans are feeling hurt and confused at the moment, they are acting in anger and disappointment toward their governing bodies and objects of faith, but mostly they want to feel connected to a community again.

Whether or not the online community is wholeheartedly supportive seems to be against the point in our ever-changing, information rich society. Just being there it turns out, is often enough.

For Brisbane commercial property listings. Visit our home page for more information.

 Brisbane commuters are facing yet another price rise in cab fares in a 6-month period. In July 2010, prices were increased by 4.2% and will be increased by a further 2.27% on January 29 this year.

Whilst all times of day will suffer this increase, it is late night and peak time cab passengers who will truly notice the difference. Cabs are primarily in use whilst ferrying passengers around the city and fringe during work hours and then ferrying socialites during the early hours of the morning.

The problem with the increased pricing is that Brisbane ultimately needs cabs. While the government is making changes to control the urban sprawl of the past decades, it still exists and much of Brisbane is left sprawling for kilometers, serviced only by a weak public transport system. Along with population growth in outer areas, Brisbane has faced a sprawl of business precincts in fringe suburbs as well as outer industrial and office park developments. With parking at a premium in the CBD, and even fringe suburbs, cabs have become a consistent form of transport around the CBD and fringe suburbs for the business visits and meetings that form an average working day.

So, if the government is intent on providing office space options in the fringe and outer suburbs in order to divert traffic from the CBD, then it must be responsible for transport options.

With all costs of running a business on the rise, it is easy to see the flow-on effect that this has for families and their everyday living costs. Small increases like this, though they may seem justified at the time, are all contributing to Brisbane’s rising cost of living. The issue is that with the rising costs of business in Brisbane, individuals and families have no one to pass this rise in costs onto as businesses do. It seems to be a vicious cycle and public opinion on how to fix the problem varies.

The truth will be told in numbers. If users of taxis decrease, surely the cab owners will rebuke the price rises.

So when do you use cabs around Brisbane?

What is your average fare?

Will you stop using cabs if the prices continue to increase?

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Many restaurants, bars and night clubs in the Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley have agreed to have ‘GOBO’ Projection lenses installed outside their premises in an effort to give patrons more information about transport from the area.

The lenses will project public transport information, timetable and directions onto the pavement and on to the side of buildings in the lead up to Christmas.

If more people start to choose public transport over taxis late at night perhaps the council will reconsider running trains through the night.

The Brisbane City Council attempted the scheme several years ago, but with worries over station and train safety as well as noise complaints from residents, the scheme was scrapped.

With cab lines now taking in excess of an hour in many city and Valley cab ranks, perhaps it is time for the Council to reconsider their previous plans. Valley venues have seen increases in crowds, as well as increases in safety as a result of the 3AM lockdown, but how long can things remain safe as patrons stand on the side of the road in the early hours, frustrated while waiting for a cab.

For bars, restaurants and entertainment venues to truly thrive, visitors need to know that they can get home quickly and safely when the night is over.

Would you consider taking public transport from Fortitude Valley in favour of a cab if it became available? Did you use the all night trains last time they ran, and if so, did you feel safe?

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Following an article on Brisbane Times today in regards to Brisbane’s Kurilpa Bridge, musings began as to whether our city centre is a little too swamped with bridges these days.

With only a few bridges throughout Brisbane actually crossing the river, it seems a little overkill that there are so many within a couple of kilometers of each other. We now have three traffic bridges (including one with a toll) as well as two foot bridges. With projected development, commercial and residential, occurring in South Brisbane and West End in the coming years, the Government has installed the bridges in an aim to increase options for commuters between the South Bank and North bank of the Brisbane CBD. Obviously people recognize the importance of reducing urban sprawl and therefore encouraging the more high-density living in and around the CBD, but have the Government jumped the gun?

The Clem 7 tunnel has come under much criticism in regards to the costing of the project as well as the tolls imposed on users. As a result, the tunnel is often close to empty and toll operators have faced huge financial losses. The ‘Go-Between’ bridge looks to be facing a similar fate with little or no traffic using the facility outside of peak times.

Could it be a mistake to build the bridge before Brisbane is ready? And why are these projects constantly being farmed out to private enterprises, causing high tolls for users and low patronage as a result. Surely taxes should grant us the right to a river crossing?

Are there more worthy crossing areas than the CBD? What other places are screaming out for a crossing? Yeerongpilly to Indooroopilly? Bulimba to New Farm? From the Story Bridge, the nearest crossing is the Gateway, more than 15 kilometers away. Surely some bridges covering these areas would ease congestion in the CBD during peak ties.

What do you think?

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With the South Brisbane Urban Development scheme, South Bank will continue to see rises in patrons in the coming years. South Brisbane is set to have an increase in commercial property as well as residential property with several building approvals coming to fruition in the near future.

Amongst all of this growth talk, South Bank has yet again come under scrutiny for its safety issues in the past couple of weeks. With the State Government once again revising its pool fencing laws, residents have asked whether it is time for South Bank to fence its swimming facilities in an attempt to boost safety of the area.

The question is, how far is too far? At what point does the Government have to start passing laws that allow its residents to forgo basic common sense? Surely, prior to arrival at South Bank, visitors can assert that there are swimming pools in the area and that, therefore, children should be kept under a watchful eye.

The South Bank corporation have, in many opinions, answered their duty of care with signage, lifeguards and plenty of parental watch-points over the swimming areas. The big question is, what is South Bank?

A park with pools? A park with Beaches? A park with Lagoons? Do we need to define the area in order to decide? And at what point do man-made swimming facilities need to be fenced?

The new State laws cover a range of swimming facilities including townhouse complexes, backpacker hotels and residential pools, and according to a statement released today, South Bank will not fall under these new stringent laws. Imagine if it did! Would we then have to fence the entire Brisbane River? The dams? The beaches? Where does it end? And where does human common sense prevail?

Do you think that the swimming lagoons/pools/beaches at South Bank should be fenced? And what is the tipping point for common sense?

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