Graya Plants Flag in Brisbane’s James Street Precinct

One of South-East Queensland’s busiest builder-developers is plotting a bold statement on Brisbane’s best retail strip.

After settling on the site at 54 James Street this month for a cool $20 million, the Gray brothers are wasting no time pushing forward with plans for the Graya headquarters.

Plans for the development, to be called The Pavilion, have been filed with the Brisbane City Council.

“We just wanted a building that was going to be world-class and visually attractive, not just locally, but around the world,” Graya co-founder Rob Gray says.

“And we wanted it to complement James Street, while standing on its own two feet.”

Gray said he and his brother, Andrew, felt pressure to add something compelling to arguably Brisbane’s most high-end and design-driven high street.

▲ The brothers settled on the site at 54 James Street this month, splashing $20 million in the tightly held precinct.

The proposed development would comprise about 1500sq m of premium retail, 1300sq m of boutique commercial office and an exclusive rooftop garden with panoramic views across the city.

Anchoring the building is a dramatic open-to-air laneway and a central architectural staircase that would weave upwards through the building.

“The brief we gave to [architect] Koichi Takada was that we wanted to integrate a retail offering vertically and to be able to draw people up and into the building. Going up multiple levels off the ground plane hasn’t really been done successfully,” Gray said.

“There’s a big line-up of high-end retail tenants that want to be in James Street but they just can’t get in.

“It’s providing something that other buildings along James Street don’t offer.”

Above the retail will be a rooftop restaurant and three floors of office, which will accommodate Graya’s flagship headquarters as well as other “like-minded” tenants, according to Gray.

▲ The Koichi Takada-designed project features sub-tropical design and open-air laneways and entertainment venues.

Gray said the rooftop restaurant would be a “phenomenal location to get some food and beverage”, while the alleyway behind the building will also feature some food and beverage, as well as a basement bar.

“Having a headquarters there and being in that location is a statement for us as a business and it will help us drive our next few decades of local business. What better place to be?”

Gray says they will move their construction team from the Forme James Place project across the road to the Bed Bath N’ Table site in early 2027 to begin construction.

*This post was originally published on https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/graya-james-street-precinct-brisbane-queensland