And even without the benefit of a full complement of cars on display in the various showrooms and the last finishing touches to furniture and fittings yet to be put in place, a tour of this building shows it resets the benchmark as the “dealership as an experience”.

The outside is a monument to the brand. The inside is a monument to the cars.

The luxury car buyers of Brisbane have already been well served by the Mercedes-Benz of Brisbane Autohaus showroom up the road in Fortitude Valley. But nothing will have prepared them for what they are about to receive.

Indeed people from all walks of life will be able to share in the waterfront cafe facing Breakfast Creek and rooftop restaurant with sweeping views out over the river and the city. 

Devotees of lifestyle activities will equally be able to pursue their interests in health and well-being when contracts being finalised at the moment are signed and fitouts covering an entire floor of the building are completed.

An early evening (and morning) tour of the Breakfast Creek dealership as the guest of LSH Group Australia management suggests that for a while this facility is going to become a destination because people, especially car people, will want to just have a look and soak up the public areas and the views.

Mercedes-Benz buyers and service customers will, however, get the best of the deal.

From the outside the glazing from ground floor to rooftop makes it clear the place is full of cars and that there are cars on display at all levels.

Floor by vast floor, the twin elevators, that can handle 2000 people an hour, serve the following levels:

Basement: Car parking for 91 cars and four car wash bays

Ground floor: Parking for lifestyle customers (43 cars).  Breakfast Creek cafe and boardwalk

Upper ground: AMG showroom (eight cars), AMG reception

Level one: Mercedes-Benz museum. Arrivals plaza for customer cars, concierge parking lane, four service reception lanes for up to 16 service advisors. Each lane with Maha safety testing of brakes, steering, suspension, wheel tracking and tread depth

Level two: S Class luxury lounge (six cars). Service with 45 bays and 40 hoists with engine/gearbox repair clean room

Mezzanine: Staff facilities and lunch room 

Level three: Lifestyle retail space

Level four: Main showroom for 38 cars. New car delivery lounge for five cars

Level five: Rooftop restaurant and balcony with river and city views.Inside windows look down into the showroom one level below.

An internal driveway which runs from the basement to the level four showroom is called a double helix design (think of peeling an apple) where one spiral driveway is one-way up and another ramp (effectively inside the up ramp) is one-way down. So no cars meet.

There are also two car lifts, one covering from the basement to level four and one to get cars into the AMG showroom plus good lifts for spare parts etc. 

The essence of the building is the amount of space devoted to the display areas on each floor is about the size of six large suburban house blocks.

Here are the numbers:

• Land size: 6251 square metres
• Gross building area: 32,712 square meters (a multiple of five times the land area)
• Net lettable area for tenants including Mercedes-Benz of Brisbane: 27,787 square meters
• Level three lifestyle tenant area: 3600 square meters
• Boardwalk (cafe): 500 square meters   
• A full roof of solar panels

The building design is the first time the new Mercedes-Benz MAR 2020 design has been implemented in Australia. MAR stands for market architecture.

When LSH went to tender with the building the design was originally based on the existing Mercedes-Benz Autohaus design parameters. But in the meantime Daimler released the MAR 2020 design rules which LSH decided to incorporate into the new building.  

This involved redesigning all of level four in terms of the quality and design of the fitout to a much higher specification (floors, walls, ceilings, lighting, electronics and screens). All sales staff desks were also sent back-of-house because MAR 2020 is also about processes.

Main showroom is on level four and is more in keeping with a gallery than a showroom. It will house 38 cars.

MA 2020 stipulated what is called a stone carpet which is coloured stone in shades of charcoal and grey glued to the concrete floor in the manner of “pebble mix”. 

LED lights recessed in a perforated ceiling specifically aimed to showcase the styling highlights of each of the cars. There will be no “showroom moves” that occur in many dealerships. The cars will always be displayed in the same position because of the specialised directional lighting above each car to highlight its lines and reflections.

Main showroom is open to the east letting in the views of the river (above).  

The idea of bringing customers to the fourth floor was to make the experience more welcoming and expose them to the views down the river, across Newstead House and up to the city. The designers said the best space for the showroom should be where the views are. 

The building lighting, power and screens (including the coffee machines) are all centrally controlled from iPads. Customers will be served coffee by staff or they can help themselves.

The intention is to be able to change the level of lighting in various zones throughout the day into the evening and then at night.

The first MA 2020 in Australia, the showroom will be available in the evening for community events as well as events associated with Mercedes-Benz sponsorships.

The showroom includes a number of touchscreens to configure cars and drawers continuing  interior materials samples.

The delivery lounge (above) is on the fourth floor.  LED lighting is designed to highlight each individual car to add theatre to the handover.

The S Class luxury lounge is on level two and reached by elevator. It will house six S Class cars in display and has commanding views across Newstead House and gardens and Breakfast Creek and down the Brisbane River (below).

The plan is to connect the boardwalk to a main cycle track that follows the Brisbane River all the way to the city.

One of the lifestyle tennants is potentially a bicycle retailer.

S Class luxury lounge (above)

More than 13,000 plants used in three green walls (above). Each plant is contained in its own pot for easy maintenance and they are watered by an electronically-controlled hydroponics system injecting 20ml of water twice a day.  The plants are lit with LED lighting specifically controlled to encourage growth which are turned off at night for the health of the plants. The water is harvested from the roof.

On some levels there are open balconies with planting that will cascade down the outside of the building.

The Museum (above) will house various Mercedes-Benz heritage memorabilia and, on an alternating basis, historic cars sourced from Mercedes-Benz enthusiasts in Queensland.

The service area is served by four service lanes and up to 16 service advisers. 

The workshop (above) has 45 bays including 40 hoists and an engine and gearbox clean repair room for rebuilds on older Mercedes models.  Exhaust gas collectors are movable along an overhead track to the required service bay. Parts are delivered to service bays not collected by technicians.

Each of the four service reception areas has its own Maha safety testing for brakes, suspension, tyre and wheel alignment compliance.   

When Mercedes-Benz Brisbane moves into Breakfast Creek, the current Autohaus dealership in Fortitude Valley will be thrown over to used cars.  Mercedes passenger vans will be sold from Breakfast Creek and commercial vans from Eagle Farm which is currently the service department.

One thing about Breakfast Creek is for sure. Staff are going to do a lot of walking.  A shoe leather allowance might be needed.

By John Mellor

John Good, managing director of LSH Auto Group Australia