McNab has moved The Tannery from a funding announcement to an active build in West End. Beneath the price tag sits the detail that matters to builders: a 156-year-old industrial building being kept and worked into a new residential project.

McNab has broken ground on The Tannery, a $220 million apartment project on Montague Road in Brisbane’s West End. The site is now active, with completion targeted for the second half of 2027.

The money and the early sales will lead most coverage. The detail more relevant to builders sits underneath that. The Tannery is not a clean slab-on-ground job. It is a mid-rise residential build designed around a brick industrial building that has stood on the site since the nineteenth century, and that building is being retained rather than cleared.

What is being built

The Tannery is 87 apartments across 11 levels, plus a rooftop amenity deck, on a 4,465 square metre riverfront site. The apartment mix is larger than the investor-stock norm, running two, three and four-bedroom residences with a gross floor area of around 10,200 square metres and 135 above-ground resident car parks.

The design was developed with Cottee Parker Architects, landscape practice Aspect Studios and interior designer Tom Mark Henry. The rooftop carries a pool, landscaped gardens, outdoor dining, a sunset lawn and dog-friendly zones. The amenity offer is built around wellness, with plunge pools, a sauna and steam room, a commercial-grade gym, and a Pilates and stretch studio.

That is the product buyers will see. The part that shapes the build sits at the centre of the site.

The heritage building at the centre

Dixon’s Tannery was established on the site in 1869 and rebuilt in brick around 1893 after flood damage. It processed hides using water drawn from the Brisbane River, later expanded into boot and shoe manufacturing, and ran for roughly 77 years before closing in 1970.

Rather than demolish it, McNab is retaining the original structure and converting it into a shared wellness space called The Retreat, positioned at the centre of the residential community. The approach keeps the site’s industrial history as part of the finished project.

Working around retained heritage fabric changes the build. The existing structure has to be assessed, stabilised and protected while new work goes up around it, and old brick and concrete do not always align with modern structural, waterproofing and services requirements. On this project, materials from the original site are also being salvaged and repurposed through Five Mile Radius, including an original concrete slab reworked into a water feature.

That kind of work is slower and more exacting than a greenfield build, and it depends on close sequencing between the retained structure and the new build. It is one of the places where modern methods of construction and adaptive reuse show up in practice rather than in marketing.

Retaining the 1869 tannery keeps the site’s history in the finished project, and shapes how the build around it is sequenced.

How the project is being delivered

The Tannery is being delivered by McNab as both developer and builder. That vertical integration is part of why the project carries a firm start date and a set program.

The project also drew international funding earlier this year, structured around constrained builder capacity and rising housing demand across South East Queensland. In the current market, investors backing apartment feasibility are weighing delivery certainty alongside location.

West End keeps absorbing density

The site sits in a suburb that has spent years converting from industrial and light commercial land into inner-city residential. West End has spent the past decade shifting toward apartments, and that transition has not been friction-free. Density, infrastructure catch-up and community pushback have all featured in the debate over how the area grows.

The Tannery sits within that pattern. At 87 apartments it is at the boutique end rather than the tower end, and the retained heritage building gives it a physical link to the site’s industrial past. It is one example of density and heritage sharing a single site.

What it means for builders

Adaptive reuse is moving from a design idea toward a delivery expectation, and the work sits in how the retained structure is sequenced and protected. Delivery certainty is now a factor in funding decisions, which puts a value on clean programs, documented decisions and realistic timelines. Heritage retention and modern amenity can share one site when the build is planned around the existing structure from the start.

Construction commenced in the first half of 2026, with completion targeted for the second half of 2027.

The Tannery at a glance

Frequently asked questions

THE GOOD BUILDER TAKE

The price tag and the early sales will get the coverage. The construction detail is what matters to builders.Retaining a 156-year-old brick building at the centre of the site shapes the build. The existing structure has to be worked around, and that sits in the program from the start.The wider point is that adaptive reuse is becoming an expectation rather than an exception, and delivery certainty is increasingly part of how projects get funded.

For more conversations on how builders are delivering complex projects in a tight market, listen to The Good Builder Podcast.

Last updated: July 2026

General information only. This article is intended as general industry information and does not constitute financial, legal or professional advice. Builders should seek independent advice specific to their circumstances.

Author: TGB Editorial