Ashes to apartments: Historic Broadway Hotel site's high-rise future
After more than 15 years sitting vacant – and surviving multiple fires and periods of squatting – the 1889-built Broadway Hotel site in Woolloongabba, Brisbane, has hit the market with approval for a 34-storey tower, as developers target one of the city’s most tightly held inner-city precincts ahead of the 2032 Olympic Games.
The neglected state heritage-listed pub at 93 Logan Road is being offered with restoration approval, alongside a new mixed-use high-rise designed by Red Door Architecture, comprising 256 apartments with activated ground-level use.
The 2508-square-metre landholding has dual frontages to Logan Road and Balaclava Street – about 40 metres and 87 metres, respectively – providing strong access, exposure and flexibility within one of the city’s most active urban renewal corridors.
About 3.5 kilometres south of Brisbane’s CBD, the site sits around 500 metres from the future underground Cross River Rail Woolloongabba Station, one of four new underground stations of Brisbane’s Cross River Rail project, a 10-kilometre track with tunnels under the CBD and Brisbane River.
Early enquiries have been immediate, with the campaign drawing strong interest from developers, hospitality groups and investors.
Listing agent Christian Sandstrom of Knight Frank says the property has generated a high volume of calls since Friday’s launch, with enquiries also coming from heritage-focused buyers and historians keen to understand the site’s future.
He says the response reflects a broader undersupply of hospitality offerings in the Woolloongabba Priority Development Area (PDA), particularly as new infrastructure and residential projects continue to reshape Woolloongabba and surrounding suburbs.
“There are a few hoteliers circling who would like to be in the development,” Sandstrom says.
“Most of the people we’ve spoken to have said that there’s just a real undersupply of hospitality in that area, just given a number of new projects.”
Today, the once-striking boom-era hotel stands partially roofless and fire-damaged, but retains key elements of its original late-Victorian Queen Anne revival design, including decorative brickwork, balconies and what remains of a once-distinctive octagonal corner tower.
Under the approved plans, the residential tower would rise directly behind the three-storey hotel, delivering apartments with one, two and three bedrooms, alongside 276 car parks, extensive bicycle facilities and ground-level activation.
Plans also incorporate a 1159-square-metre refurbished historic pub with various bar, dining, gaming, office and function spaces, with courtyard and laneway spaces designed to bring the site back to life at street level.
Upper levels have been oriented to capture sweeping views across the Brisbane CBD skyline and the surrounding inner-south precinct, complemented by landscaped podium terraces and shared residents’ spaces designed to maximise outlook and usability.
The vacant hotel, owned by Carbone Developers since 2021, closed its doors in 2010 while renovations were underway due to a devastating blaze that required 50 firefighters and two aerial units to save it.
The site is being marketed via an expressions-of-interest campaign through Sandstrom, alongside Knight Frank’s Blake Goddard.
“The Broadway Hotel site occupies a gateway position within one of Brisbane’s most transformative inner-city precincts,” Sandstrom says.
“With the Cross River Rail opening in 2029 and significant investment continuing across the precinct, this location is set to undergo a once-in-a-generation uplift.”
Goddard agrees, saying the approval, combined with the precinct’s evolution, places the property among South East Queensland’s more compelling long-term redevelopment plays.
“This is a development-approved project within a rapidly-maturing urban renewal corridor,” he adds.
Goddard says the campaign presents an opportunity to deliver a landmark mixed-use scheme while retaining and reimagining the historic pub, describing it as “one of Brisbane’s most loved pubs” that could be repositioned “to be loved once again”.
The Carbone Group has progressed the project through design and approvals, aligning the scheme with broader Queensland government planning across the precinct, and is now divesting to focus on other smaller developments within its pipeline.
Looking back to its origins, the hotel was designed by the Brisbane architecture firm John Hall & Son as an eye-catching corner landmark, with some accounts attributing the design to noted architect John Smith Murdoch, who later designed Old Parliament House in Canberra.
Constructed by local contractors Wooley and White, the imposing structure was built to command attention along a busy tram-serviced route, with their £4820 tender accepted in September 1889.
According to the Queensland Heritage Register, the Broadway Hotel opened in 1890 during a period of rapid economic and population growth, quickly establishing itself as a prominent landmark within a fast-developing transport corridor.
The surrounding area was originally known as One Mile Swamp, marked by a chain of waterholes where bullock teams and livestock rested en route between Brisbane and the Logan and Darling Downs districts, before being progressively drained and transformed into a commercial hub.
Like many hotels of its era, the Broadway was designed as both a social anchor and a place of accommodation, with public bars, dining areas and lodging, reflecting its role in servicing a growing and increasingly mobile population.
The broader site evolved over time, with rear stables once supporting travellers arriving by horse and dray, while an air-raid shelter was built in 1943 – a rare surviving reminder of wartime Brisbane.
Despite its prominence, the building has endured repeated setbacks. After the 2010 fire forced its closure, another significant blaze followed in 2018, sparking widespread community concern about the future of the heritage pub, and a further fire earlier this year tested its resilience.
Its survival through 137 years of change underscores both the challenges and the opportunities now facing its next custodians.
Planning documents lodged with the Queensland government last October were approved in January.
The property is understood to have changed hands in 2021 for $8.8 million, with a Carbone entity, Broadway Projects, acquiring the hotel from Brisbane GP Malcolm Nyst.
Woolloongabba’s demographic shift is also playing into the opportunity, with a younger, inner-city population and growing demand from owner-occupiers and downsizers seeking proximity to the CBD, major health precincts and lifestyle convenience.
Apartments remain the most attainable entry point, reinforcing demand as the suburb transitions into a higher-density mixed-use hub.
The site is surrounded by major infrastructure investments, including the Brisbane Live arena, and is experiencing strong population growth.
The property is for sale via expressions of interest through Knight Frank, closing at 4pm on May 27.
