Lord Mayor says new Visy site plans still allow for ‘South Bank 2.0'
Brisbane LNP Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has backed in his state party colleagues' plans for the riverside Visy recycling factory at South Brisbane, despite being a vocal supporter of the former Labor government's now-abandoned vision for the site.
The Palaszczuk Labor government bought the site in 2022 for $165 million, on which it planned to build the Brisbane 2032 International Broadcast Centre, which would house the world's media during the Games.
But the Crisafulli LNP government-commissioned 100-day Olympic review undertaken by the Games Independent Infrastructure and Co-ordination Authority found: 'Preliminary design and costing works have identified that the temporary delivery of an International Broadcasting Centre on the Visy site may be cost prohibitive.'
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie confirmed on Thursday that the Visy site had been abandoned as the IBC, with the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre emerging as a possible alternative.
Schrinner, who had been a supporter of the former Labor government's plans for the site, said the new LNP government's plan for the Visy factory was also in line with his council's 'South Bank 2.0' vision.
That vision was itself borrowed from former Labor premier Anna Bligh's 2012 proposal for a South Bank expansion, which was abandoned when the Campbell Newman-led LNP won office later that year.
'South Bank was transformed after Expo '88 into a fantastic urban precinct with a mixture of homes, retail and parkland,' Schrinner said on Thursday.
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