As South-East Queensland grapples with a growing need for housing and community infrastructure, the former Taubman’s paint factory sat among the leafy riverside suburb of Yeronga as an underperforming and previously considered unviable industrial asset.
Recognising the potential of the site as a mixed-use precinct, Montague Developments engaged Therefor Group to effectively demonstrate that the site had outgrown its industrial use and was better placed to respond to the growing residential need.
After significant investment and repeat attempts by others to develop The Paint Factory, Therefor Group knew a truly creative and innovative approach would be required to transform the site.
Where previous attempts focused on traditional approval pathways, Therefor Group focused on a collaborative and advocacy-led approach, with planners, strategists, surveyors, designers, artists, service providers and authorities brought together for frequent shared conversations to overcome barriers that had previously stood in the way.
This approach resulted in a workable pathway where none had existed before, and saw complex flooding, access, amenity and neighbour issues were addressed holistically.
By focusing efforts on problem solving rather than gatekeeping, Therefor Group successfully created a shared vision by translating cultural, community and economic outcomes into language that resonated across disciplines and agencies. Additionally, with the site already in frequent use by mural artists who often found it challenging to find suitable workspaces and accommodation nearby, there was a natural opportunity for the site to evolve to a mixed-use precinct.
Where others had viewed the site’s organic status as an arts hub as a restraint, Therefor Group saw an opportunity to build on this unique identity while preserving and amplifying an already established Indigenous arts hub. To do so, Therefor Group positioned existing artists at the centre of the solution by creating affordable, spacious workspaces and homes for artists and the wider community, supporting long term community activity and infrastructure.
This approach, combined with leveraging the site’s status as a transition site identified by the Brisbane City Council to support strategic policy objectives by repurposing surplus industrial land, has allowed Therefor Group to transform an underperforming and previously unviable asset into an approved, multi-staged, mixed-use precinct.
Now an emerging cultural hub with plans for a series of apartment buildings and retail and entertainment amenities, the Paint Factory’s values-led, precinct-scale methodology provides a replicable framework for unlocking complex, underperforming industrial sites – particularly where multiple stakeholders, policy inertia and competing land-use demands intersected.
With Queensland undergoing an exponential wave of growth, Therefor Group urges others to consider unorthodox approval pathways, including unlikely collaborations, leveraging neighbourhood character and unique attributes as a driver and engaging consistently with both government and local communities to identify alignment opportunities.
As a true mixed-use facility founded by a decade of advocacy, the Paint Factory is a testament to the strategic thinking, creativity and collaboration required more broadly across Brisbane to respond to the city’s growing need for sustainable and vibrant housing and community infrastructure.
