The Charter Hall AFP partnership is expanding to Brisbane. The group has secured a corner site on Ann Street, Fortitude Valley, as the future home of the Australian Federal Police’s Northern Command centre, settling a $32.775 million purchase of three amalgamated blocks at 925–949 Ann Street in late October.
The 2,335-square-metre parcel sits on the corner of Ann and Chester streets and brings together three holdings previously owned by two parties. Tom Barr of RWC Queensland pieced the site together through option agreements on each lot. All three blocks are zoned mixed use, and one contains a 1930s building. The AFP will be the sole tenant, having pre-committed to 10,494 square metres of the planned 11,856-square-metre gross floor area in a 10-level office building to be known as 949 Ann Street.
What the new command centre will house
The AFP’s commitment includes 7,112 square metres of office accommodation and 3,066 square metres of specialist and technical space. The move will bring together staff now split between two leased buildings: 7,396 square metres at 45 Commercial Road, Newstead, and 1,993 square metres at 180 Alfred Street, Fortitude Valley. The Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation will also move in.
The building is designed for about 576 staff, including an extra 95 officers expected by 2029. The AFP aims to be in by July 2029, ahead of its current leases expiring in 2029 and 2030.
How the Charter Hall AFP deal is structured
Charter Hall is buying the project on a funds-through basis. Consolidated Properties Group, led by chairman and chief executive Don O’Rorke, secured the development permit and will oversee delivery of the base building and fit-out under a development management agreement. Charter Hall, which now owns the land, will fund construction in stages, with Hutchinson Builders as the contractor. Under arrangements like this, the developer typically carries delivery risk while the investor ends up with a finished, fully leased asset.
The fit-out, estimated at $89.3 million excluding GST, will be paid for through a lease incentive from the developer rather than from the AFP’s existing departmental funds. Realestatesource puts the building’s end value at between $85 million and $90 million, based on recent office sales nearby, including 515 St Paul’s Terrace and Green Square South.
At street level there will be a 535-square-metre public plaza and ground-floor retail, while two basement levels will hold 72 car parks and 75 bike bays.
Part of a larger pipeline
The Ann Street project is one of three Brisbane developments covered by about $1 billion in construction contracts signed by Consolidated and Hutchinson over a 30-day period. The other two are residential: Castile at Newstead, which has 229 apartments in a 25-storey tower plus 12 homes in a six-storey building, designed by Woods Bagot; and Gloriette at Yeerongpilly Green, which has 181 apartments.
Brisbane extends the Charter Hall AFP relationship, as the group already owns an office in Melbourne’s Lonsdale Street leased to the agency. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works recommended the project proceed in its August 2026 report. For an investor, a long Commonwealth lease remains about as secure an income stream as Australian property offers.
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Sources: realestatesource.com.au; theurbandeveloper.com; Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works.
