IN THE end it was the vehicle performance track that brought undone the $1 billion Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) automall development as the business case for proceeding with it withered over time to the point where it became untenable.

An industry analyst with knowledge of the automall project, who spoke on condition of not being named, told GoAutoNews Premium that as far as Eagers Automotive was concerned, the development as it stood is over and while it won’t proceed, the company remained open to always looking at options with BAC in the future. 

In all, about eight Eagers brands located in the Newstead area of Brisbane were earmarked for the automall including Jaguar Land Rover, Volkswagen, Mazda and Toyota with the potential for the Eagers automall operations to eventually number nine or 10 rooftops. They will now stay where they are.

The BAC has a 99-year lease on the airport land which is owned by the federal government. BAC was to develop the precinct, build the track and a skid pan and they were responsible for monetising that track and all its ancillary components by finding an operator to run it.

Eagers was one of numerous potential tenants in the precinct including Scifleet. The project was announced in 2015 and Eagers signed on as an anchor tenant in 2017.

BAC had allocated 51 hectares to the total precinct and the automall was to be a landmark destination for car retailers. 

The 2.4 km performance track had been designed by racing driver Mark Skaife and the project envisaged a hotel, shopping malls and restaurants which could potentially be included in future development undertaken by BAC. 

The total budget was said to be $1 billion and. BAC was forecasting that 1.4 million visitors would be attracted to the auto precinct by 2026.   

Eagers had not invested in the track or any other components of the development. 

The project was first conceived in 2015 but the imperatives of 2015 are no longer the same in 2023, and beyond, and this was reflected in a joint statement by BAC and Eagers Automotive which said: “The decision has been driven by a number of factors, including the economics of a performance track in a changing world.” 

Eagers had signed on for 61,400 square metres as a lead tenant, however with the fundamental change to the design and delivery of the precinct, BAC and Eagers made the mutual decision to cease progress. 

The analyst told GoAutoNews Premium that the project was to operate in the same way as a golf course development where a golf course is built and housing blocks are developed with utilities. These are sold or leased for residents with a whole precinct being developed around the golf course which the residents use.

The performance track at Brisbane airport was pitched as the equivalent of the golf course to which the automall tenants would have had access. But without its “golf course” the rest of the development no longer had the same appeal to auto dealers.

The fact that the joint statement alluded to the changing world suggests both Eagers and BAC see the world has moved on since 2017 and an investment as big as it would require to move forward at the automall was no longer the right one.

 GoAutoNews Premium also understands that the Eagers businesses earmarked for relocation will continue to operate in their PMAs in Newstead and that Eagers had not even got as far as making decisions about whether the easyauto123 big-box used car operation or a new head office would be located at the airport.

The only plans that were totally signed off were the arrangements with the OEMs because Eagers needed OEM sign-off before moving forward with a new dealership at the airport.

Comment by John Mellor