Architect Koichi Takada signed up for $100m Brisbane CBD project
Sydney architect Koichi Takada and his signature nature-inspired style have been enlisted for a $100 million commercial project in one of Brisbane’s best-known shopping and dining precincts in Fortitude Valley.
The developer Graya is behind the five-storey retail and office project on James Street, a precinct known for its fashion and lifestyle outlets. Chief executive Rob Gray said his group has been keen to partner with Takada for a long time and had been looking for the right opportunity to bring on board the architect and his distinctive style.
“The brief was we wanted it to be an internationally recognisable building and to really attract those just really high-end brands,” Gray told The Australian Financial Review. “The nature of the street was the inspiration.”
Takada is known for the nature-inspired approach to his designs. Among his biggest projects are a three-storey, mixed-use development in Shanghai called Solar Trees Marketplace, Crown Group’s 26-storey residential building Arc in Sydney, and he also worked on the interior design of the National Museum of Qatar in Doha.
The architect’s next brief is Graya’s The Pavilion project comprising more than 1500 square metres of retail space, 1200 square metres of boutique offices and a rooftop garden in the heart of Fortitude Valley. On the building’s basement floor, there are plans to open a late-night bar.
For Graya’s founders, brothers Rob and Andrew Gray, the project represents a first foray into the commercial market for a business that has built its reputation on strikingly designed, luxury residential buildings.
The James Street site, currently home to Bed Bath & Table, was purchased for $20 million earlier this year by Graya and is one of the last undeveloped properties on the strip.
Less than 100 metres away is one of Brisbane’s top hotels, The Calile Hotel, which for a third consecutive year has made The World’s 50 Best Hotels 2025 list at No. 34.
Rob Gray said the James Street retail and dining strip was a big drawcard for visitors to Brisbane from interstate.
“It’s nice to be doing, I guess, the next evolution of that strip which has been a phenomenal transformation,” he said. “A lot of people have just followed the same kind of mud map, and we’re taking it to a different level, which is really exciting.
“Some of our upcoming projects have dabbled in retail. But this is our first project that just doesn’t have any residential, and it’s a new space for us,” he said. “It makes sense for us to branch into this type of development because we’ve got a big passion for it.
“It’s just the next evolution of our brand, and we do feel strongly about pushing our brand into different cities, into different offerings.”
Graya hopes to begin construction on the James Street building in the first quarter of 2027 with the building expected to be completed by early 2029.
Meanwhile, Graya has designed a Gold Coast penthouse complete with its own wellness suite and rooftop retreat, which is on the market for $26.5 million, in its 23-storey Enclave development in Broadbeach. If that sale price is achieved, it would smash south-east Queensland’s apartment record.
