IFM Lodges Two-Tower Regent Lane Plan: 290 Units, 240-Room Hotel

IFM Investors has lodged a development application for a two-tower precinct on the land behind the Regent theatre and part of the Wintergarden complex in the Brisbane CBD. The plan carries 290 apartments, a 240-room hotel and a public rooftop garden, according to the application details published by Brisbane Development and The Urban Developer.

The application, A007121657, was lodged with Brisbane City Council on 30 September under the name of IFM Real Estate Fiduciary. Council’s Development.i record lists the site address as 167 Queen Street and shows the application at the lodgement stage. It is a proposal under assessment, not an approval.

Why it matters

The site fronts the Queen Street Mall, and the scheme is the third version of its future in three years. An earlier owner, ISPT, pitched an office tower; a 2024 revision proposed a 42-storey mixed-use tower; the 2026 scheme splits the site into a residential-led tower and a lower commercial building.

For developers, the signal is the use mix. A major institutional owner has moved a prime CBD site from an office-led scheme to one where apartments and hotel rooms carry the tallest tower. The Regent’s heritage facade, entrance hall and grand foyer would be retained.

The numbers

• Site: 7,260 sqm between Queen Street Mall and Elizabeth Street.
• Apartments: 290 in total, 154 two-bedroom, 132 three-bedroom and 4 four-bedroom, on levels 18 to 49.
• Hotel: 240 rooms, 24 per floor across levels 6 to 15. No operator has been named.
• Heights: the hotel and residential tower tops out at RL 181.9 metres; the commercial tower at RL 95.35 metres.
• Non-residential space: 24,607 sqm of commercial and 7,384 sqm of retail.
• Podium: a level 5 public garden with restaurants, bars and a cafe.

Woods Bagot is the architect. Neither report gives a project value.

The apartment mix leans heavily to larger homes: 136 of the 290 apartments, or 47 per cent, have three or more bedrooms, which points at owner-occupiers and downsizers rather than investors buying one-bedders.

What’s next

The application now runs through council assessment, including any information requests and heritage advice on the Regent. Watch for a hotel operator announcement, which usually precedes funding, and for how the council treats the public rooftop garden as part of the city’s public realm. See more Brisbane development coverage.