We've Watched West End Change Since 2010. The Next Chapter Is the Biggest One Yet.
For decades the old milk factory was part of West End’s industrial backbone. Now it’s closing, and a major riverfront redevelopment is taking its place. Having worked in West End since 2010, we look at what the change could mean for the people who live and own here.
By Corey Davis, Director
Published on August 20, 2026.
Last updated on August 20, 2026.
There’s a version of West End that long-time locals still carry around in their heads. Warehouses lining Montague Road. The milk factory humming away near the river. Boundary Street before half its corners turned into wine bars and bookshops. If you’ve lived or worked here for a while, you’ve seen the place shift year by year, sometimes so slowly you barely clocked it, until one morning the skyline looked different and you realised the West End you knew had quietly become something else.
We’ve had a close view of all of it. Image Property opened in West End in 2010, and over the fifteen years since, we’ve sold and managed homes through stage after stage of the neighbourhood’s reinvention. We’ve watched the change from the ground, on footpaths and at open homes and on moving day, not from a brochure. It’s one thing to read that a suburb is growing. It’s another to help the people living through it.
The Milk Factory is Closing, and Something Big is Taking Its Place.
For decades the Parmalat milk factory on Montague Road, long run under the Paul’s brand, was part of the everyday backdrop here. One of the last working reminders of West End’s industrial years. Now it’s closing. The owner is shutting the South Brisbane plant in September, and the site has been bought by Queensland developer Stockwell.
What’s planned for it is on a different scale to anything West End has seen.
What Stockwell has in Mind.
Stockwell, led by former Olympic swimmer Mark Stockwell, has folded the old milk factory site into land it already owns nearby. Together that brings more than five hectares of riverfront on the Kurilpa Peninsula under one plan, on the stretch of river that links West End and South Brisbane with the CBD, Suncorp, the Olympic stadiums and Queen’s Wharf, with seven bridges and three train stations close by.
The work is staged across three parts. The first, which already has a development application lodged, is housing aimed at owner-occupiers. A build-to-rent building of studios, one and two-bedroom apartments would follow. The third stage is a 400-room hotel. Stockwell expects the whole thing to take up to fifteen years.
Mark Stockwell has called it a one in a hundred year opportunity, noting the milk factory started life back in 1930 and that the area has had its time as an industrial pocket. Stockwell made its first West End investment in 1997, so this is familiar ground for the company.
An Olympic Flavour.
A lot of the thinking points at 2032. Stockwell wants the riverfront to become a public, festival-style space during the Games, with new riverside parkland and a “walk of champions” where fans could meet athletes, an idea he’s borrowed from Paris. He’s described wanting somewhere up to a hundred thousand Brisbane families could come and feel part of the Olympic experience. A couple of hectares could be set aside as temporary live sites and entertainment during the Games, and he’s floated hosting events like speed climbing and skating on the site.
Under the rail line, the plan includes what Stockwell calls “The Beer Mile,” a run of bars and entertainment connecting through Fish Lane toward Suncorp. The thinking, he says, comes from lessons learned at South Bank over the years. Get the mix of homes, workplaces, food and entertainment right, and a place comes alive.
The Bigger Picture for the Area.
The state government has fast-tracked the site by placing it within a Provisional Priority Development Area, which means the plans are assessed by Economic Development Queensland rather than Brisbane City Council. The government says the move will speed up new housing in areas close to jobs and transport.
It isn’t the only change in the works nearby. Just along Montague Road, the government is separately seeking proposals to turn the 7.1-hectare Visy glass factory site into housing. The whole pocket is being lined up for a new chapter.
What It Means if You Live or Own in West End.
A word of honesty first. Most of this is still a plan. Only the first stage has an application in, the rest will play out over more than a decade, and big visions like this tend to shift as they go. It’s worth holding the excitement and the realism together.
That said, the direction is clear enough. More homes, more places to eat and gather, and a working industrial site on the river being opened up to the public. For people who already own here, sustained investment of this kind tends to hold a suburb’s appeal, though how that flows through to any one street or home is never guaranteed. For anyone thinking about buying or selling, the simple point is that West End is moving into a new phase.
Development plans, timelines and artist’s impressions referenced in this article are sourced from Stockwell’s official announcement (stockwell.com.au) and are based on publicly available information at time of publishing. Details are subject to change, including further approvals, planning amendments or revisions by the developer. Image Property is not affiliated with Stockwell and makes no representations as to the final design, delivery or timing of the project.
Thinking About West End?
West End has changed plenty already. It’s about to change again. If you’re weighing up what the next few years might mean for your place here, come and have a chat. We’ve watched this neighbourhood grow up, and we’ll see you home.
