MAKING A CONCRETE DIFFERENCE

Meet the concrete kings of Townsville. They are kings because, let’s face it, most of them are men. Construction is still very much a maledominated world. But that’s not to say we don’t have women who are blazing a trail, as our list will show. These are the people who have developed many of the homes, offices, retail centres and warehouses where we live, work and play. As developers, they tend to get a bad rap, perhaps partly out of envy. But where would we be without them? Construction is a huge industry that creates many, many jobs and it has a huge flow-on impact throughout the economy.

Apart from that, there is the sheer enjoyment their finished products deliver.

Besides, building stuff is hard, particularly in a high-cost, red-tapetangled environment such as Australia. It’s risky, which is one reason why the returns are so good. The people who are successful are very well rewarded. These concrete kings in Townsville have done well. TONY RAGGATT reports

BRAD WEBB

Brad Webb (pictured right) founded the BM Webb group, acquiring about 280ha of land in 1999 in Bohle and Mount St John to establish a landmark industrial estate. It is now home to more than 100 businesses, including many of Australia’s leading industrial, transport and commercial brands. Much of the construction, including mechanical, construction, civil, steel fabrication and precast panels has been done inhouse. The quarrying, concrete and transport units of the business were sold in 2014 for about $30m.

LAURENCE LANCINI

Laurence Lancini is the founder, managing director and executive chairman of Lancini Property Group. Starting as a home builder in Townsville, he has overseen the firm’s expansion into all aspects of f construction and property development a c r o s s Queensland. Domain Central and Fairfield Central are among the Townsville projects. He is behind the City Arcade and City Lane developments where an expansion is being planned. His group had earlier developed and then sold the City Point office and retail building for a cool $26m earlier this year.

PETER TAPIOLAS

Peter Tapiolas is a director of the family-owned and operated Parkside Group. He is part of the third

generation in the family operating this major player in the timber, home-building and development industries. Parkside has delivered more than 6000 residential allotments in North Queensland. Q a d. That number is likely to have grown considerably since the Covid-19 housing incentives were introduced. Its home builder,

T r o p i c a l

Homes, is said to have helped more people move into new homes than any other builder in Townsville.

PETER HONEYCOMBE

Peter Honeycombe moved to Townsville from Brisbane in 1989 to open Jones Lang’s NQ office before joining the family firm and launching Honeycombes Property Group in 1991.

He has c o m p l e t e d more than $1.5bn worth of o projects a c r o s s Queensland while living in Townsville. Local projects include Urban Q u a r t e r , Highpoint, Mint, Waterview Terraces, Medilink Plaza, Metro Quays, Itara and several buildings in the Central development.

The group’s major development asset in Townsville, the 17.21ha

South Yards land opposite the stadium, is being advertised for sale at present.

GLEN MAIDMENT

Glen Maidment is the managing director of Townsville-based property developm e n t c o m p a n y M a i d m e n t Group. The company has a development pipeline of thousands of residential lots in comm u n i t i e s throughout Mount Low, the Bohle Plains and Jensen, and has been a market leader in the introduction of fibre-optic connections, energy efficiency and solar home battery technology. The group has been selling its stocks of developed housing lots and brought forward construction on new stages to meet demand.

MARK ADAMS

Mark Adams is the owner of Northern Management Group, p, a private property development and management entity. He has more than 20 years of business and property experience and controls a s i g n i f i c a n t property portfolio in Townsville, including properties in Flinders St such as the Mad Cow Tavern. He has also been involved as a shareholder in some big recent development projects that have then been on-sold, such as the new Ergon Energy office tower, 420 Flinders, for $63.5m in 2018 and the Rabo Bank building for $10.97m last year.

WARREN EBERT

W a r r e n Ebert established fund m a n a g e r S e n t i n e l Group Australia. He was formerly a director r of comm e r c i a l development at Citimark

Properties, P a consultant to Property Funds Australia, a director of retail projects at PRD Realty and director of commercial developments at CB Richard Ellis. Sentinel has made a point of investing in regional centres, including at Mackay and

Townsville, where the group holds some $250m worth of assets. In Townsville it holds industrial sites in Mount St John and Roseneath, the Woodlands Village shopping centre, the Stanley Street business centre, the River Quays building and Central Plaza.

ANDREW ASTORQUIA

Andrew Astorquia is project director for a number of developments including Stockland Trust’s $1bnplus masterplanned community y of North Shore on the northern bank of the Bohle River. It is somewhat understating things to say that Stockland is a big player in Townsville, also owning the

Stockland shopping centres on adjacent corners of Ross River Road and Nathan Street, Aitkenvale, as well as a swag of commercial properties around it, land banked for future development.

SIMON WALKER

Simon Walker is regional development manager for Australian multinational construction, property and infrastructure company L e n d l e a s e Group, which has long had interests in Townsville, including Riverside Gardens and now the large mast e r p l a n n e d community of Elliot Springs on the city’s southern outskirts. Upon completion c some time over the next 20 to 30 years, the 1600ha Elliot Springs will be home to 26,000 people across more than 10,600 dwellings, as well as incorporating commercial, education and retail property.

TERI HUMPHREYS

Teri Humphreys leads one of North Queensland’s largest and longest established earthmovov ing compani e s , Townsville T Earthmoving. E As A this list would appear to attest, she is still something of a rarity in the m male- dominated world of f concrete and construction. Townsville Earthmoving specialises in earthmoving, civil construction, plant hire, building contracting and property development. The company was established by her late father, Bill Mclachlan, in 1974. Ms Humphreys has led the company since 1998.

JEFF DOYLE

Jeff Doyle is managing director of integrated construction group Mendi Constructions. Formed in 1959 by his father, Kevin, and Joe Goicoechea, the business has evolved into a civil construction firm offering integrated services from quarry and haulage g operations p o s to extensive machinery and project management services. The company has been involved in land development for residential estates including its own Summerset Estate, civil works for the Haughton Pipeline duplication, the Queensland Country Bank Stadium and The Ville Resort-casino.

THERESE SMITH

Therese Smith is managing director of the Gleeson Group, daughter of the late Townsville television pioneer, Jack Gleeson, , who is s leading the redevelopment of an almost entire city block bounded by Flinders St, King St, The Strand and Wickham St. Earlier this year the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority selected a proposal by the Gleeson Group as the base for its new Australian headquarters. The five-level office will be the first component of a $250m development called The Hive.

BEN GRIFFIN

Ben Griffin is the founder and CEO of Geon Property, a Brisbanebased development company that has been active in Townsville for many years. It has developed small and large commercial centres across the city such as the Precinct shops in

Idalia and, with an owner partner, has redeveloped the Rasmussen Plaza shopping centre. In some of the latest projects Geon is developing the next stage of Fairfield Homemaker Centre to include bouldering, golf simulators, yoga and a swimming school. That’s pretty cool.

As developers, they tend to get a bad rap, perhaps partly out of envy. But where would we be without them?

GARY MCCONAGHY

Gary Mcconaghy is chief executive of Mcconaghy Properties, a private Brisbane-based retail development company. Mcconaghy Properties is the owner of Castletown Shoppingworld, which it has owned, managed and developed over the past 30 years. It is p a r t - w a y through a $34m redevelopment of the centre at present to add a new Coles supermarket and specialty retailers, new entry statement, upgraded carparking, improved facilities and a revitalised Playtown.

CHRIS MORRIS

One of Australia’s richest people, Chris Morris made a fortune launching computerised share registry service Computershare in the late 1970s. Mr Morris still holds almost a 6 per cent share of the company, which is valued at $10.9bn and employs more than 18,000 people. The city has been fortunate Mr Morris decided to buy, among other tourism and pub assets, Townsv i l l e ’ s Breakwater casino hotel. He has undertaken a muchneeded $45m makeover of the property and has just launched work on a new five-star hotel $80m next door.