Griffith Uni Hits the Jackpot with Star Casino Deal for New Treasury Building Campus

Griffith University has picked up an absolute bargain in the form of the Brisbane Treasury Building, taking off The Star Casino's hands for a measly $67.5 million!

After The Star moved it's casino operations to the new Queen's Wharf develoment, speculation swirled as to what would move into the heritage listed Treasury building: high end retail, a boutique hotel, dining options? And Griffith University swooped in, picking up an epic, grand building, in an absolutely prime location on Queen Street and just footsteps from South Bank - it feels like Griffith taking a swing and challenging UQ and QUT to become Queensland's top university.

What will this new campus mean for a struggling Brisbane CBD? What opportunities for businesses, residents or visitor will it bring? Let's find out. Today, we're talking tactics.

00:00 Introduction
01:01 The History of the Treasury Building
02:24 Griffith University's Purchase
05:13 How Will The Campus Change the CBD?
06:53 What Do You Think?

#griffithuniversity #treasurybuilding #queenswharf

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Talking Tactics delivers an informed and progressive look into new world Business, Finance, Politics, Infrastructure, Defence, Technology and Current Events.

Talking Tactics is presented by Mel Pikos, Managing Director of TACTIC.


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[Matt_JJz]

I wish Brisbane still built the classical sandstone kind of architecture. It would make our cities look much nicer and more iconic, compared to the boring simplistic detached buildings/houses that flood the majority of our city especially in the newer suburbs

[seonggi-hun]

Pretty cool. It’s a beautiful building and a uni campus is a more suitable use for it in my opinion

[doctorg]

Wow! Fantastic move Griffith. I loved my time as a student at Griffith which goes from strength to strength 😊

[downundabrotha]

It should've been acquired as a Museum. It's a beautiful building.

[brynzlo]

Keep up the awesome work. It’s great to get this style of video on local (Aus and Brisbane) topics and you seem really passionate about the topics you cover

[davidnmiers]

I think it’s a great use of the space.

[threestumps]

damn! I was thinking the students could hit the pokies every Friday night 😆😆
Otherwise looks great. Well done Griffith!

[shadowhuntagaming]

I had no idea this was happening, the rumour I heard was Myer was going in there. I'm actually so happy about this, this will breathe so life into the CBD.

Let's hope this is the beginning of something beautiful. Brisbane CBD is so underutilized.

[VanillaMacaron]

You could have mentioned UQ's historic Customs House in this piece. It's held on a 99-year lease and UQ banded together with some apartment owners in the tower behind to legally (unsuccessfully) oppose development of a huge residential tower very close beside CH around a decade ago. Since then UQ has taken over the sandstone former NAB building on the corner of Queen and Creek streets. Who knows if they plan on keeping both CBD historic buildings long-term? CH is like UQ's in-house classy restaurant (once upon a time it had the Staff Club overlooking the lawns and lakes at St Lucia for this purpose) and as I understand the former NAB building is focused on the wealthy business school's teaching, learning and program activities.
Don't dismiss Griffith as a "third" university. At one stage not too many years ago it was Qld's biggest uni ranked by student enrolment numbers and possibly it still is; sorry I'm not up with current data. But as I recall at that time, UQ, QUT and Griffith each had around 40, 000 students. Unis are poked and prodded for all sorts of data cut in different ways and there are global and local rankings and measurements on which Griffith has at times outshone the other two main Brisbane-based unis.

[treefarm]

As a Queensland country resident, I was dismayed to see this building become a casino. It will be terrific as a uni campus, and good job Griffith didn't have to pay too much!

[emmaotoner]

Do a video on the impact of 50c fares for the cbd and Brissy more broadly

[syco]

Still cant get over the awful eyesore that is the riverside expressway

[ashton]

Star was not selling that building for 248 million 😂😂😂😂 the original deal was 248 for the treasury the multi story car park and the treasury hotel across the road with 120 hotels rooms . Griffith uni paid the full rate for the 1 out of the 3 assets for sale

[richardbaker]

So much better that this fantastic building can be used as a place of progress and learning rather than a place of gambling and degeneracy. A step in the right direction for Brisbane

[jacobpaint]

It’s an interesting move, Griffith clearly has a very different structure and direction than other QLD Uni’s. They have South Bank, Nathan, Mt Gravatt, Logan and the Gold Coast. This move feels like an extension and solidification of their South Bank campus which is very understated and alongside South Bank TAFE but will probably be regarded as a seperate campus within Griffith (like Nathan and Mt Gravatt which are within walking distance of each other but on opposite sides of the highway). Maybe they could convert the old Myer store into accomodation like the old Coorparoo Myers was (although that was demolished and replaced).
I have no need for a University so this development doesn’t benefit me directly. There are probably many developments that would benefit a broader range of the public and allow more people to enjoy the old Treasury building. Hopefully Griffith include eateries within the building with public access and river views so that they people can finally enjoy the building in a way that the Casino’s locked in set up didn’t allow for.

[garethhall]

Not so sure how much of a win it will be, the re-moddeling to make it fit for purpose will be a nightmare. My mate was in charge of the original Treasurty build, the amount paperwork and delays caused by trying to keep all of the heritage listed parts original and not destroying anything with the new build was a nightmare. I expect no different this time.

[BaileyStephens_]

This looks interesting if I was walking around the city.

[williamcrossan]

I reckon this is about the best possible outcome. It wont make any difference to me, but it's good to hear of positive outcomes in sea of negativity.

[farmerooni]

I'm going to assume the two faculties (I.T. & Law) are going to be popular -the video quotes the building is planned to accommodate 7, 000 students. The renders show a lot of desks and individual study areas, and the centre square (flanked by the building's four sides) looks to be turned into an open seating area. So what about lecture theatres & rooms?

I haven't been to Uni in a long time, so not sure if physical lectures even exist any more. But how does such a small building fit in enough lecture rooms & theatres for 7, 000 students? Especially if the centre square isn't going to be converted either?

Last time I checked Treasury Casino's conference rooms, there were only about 5 available, and only about one or two that would fit more than 100 people....

Just seems like an odd choice for a campus for two of the more popular faculties.

[aok]

So likely to still be a bit of a dead zone in the evenings, weekends and several months of uni holidays throughout the year. Still not a bad idea and good for the uni but not sure it will revitalise the city too much.