Two questions I’m often asked are: “What is happening with our CBD?” and “Why is council building a new administration building?”
I’ll answer the second question first. Retail businesses in Ipswich Central are struggling; closure of the mall and the start-stop history of redevelopment since council bought the former Ipswich City Square more than a decade ago has been devastating.
To thrive, CBDs need life. Retail, offices, entertainment, food and beverage venues, educational institutions, health services and inner city living are the usual mix local governments pursue.
The shining light for Ipswich is health services. Already, one in four jobs in Ipswich Central is in this sector, with planned expansions to Ipswich Hospital and St Andrew’s Private Hospital, range of approvals for health centres, and the conversion of the former Metro Hotel into an aged care facility.
Queensland Health has also agreed to buy council’s current administration centre and surrounding land to expand as our population swells from 215,000 to about 500,000 in the next 30 years. Put simply, the CBD would be devastated if we lost the hospital to a “greenfield” location due to lack of expansion room. Hence council needs to relocate its 600-plus staff to the new administration centre in the CBD.
In regards to the first question, the redevelopment is well and truly underway. All residents have to do is take a walk through Nicholas Street and peep through the hoarding to see the work in progress.
Delivering a fresh new CBD precinct is one of your council’s top priorities, with several milestones recently achieved.
Early this month, we announced that Hutchinson Builders had been nominated as the preferred tenderer to construct the new council building, library and civic plaza at the end of Nicholas Street.
Hutchinson Builders expect to be on-site with 200 workers by early August, a boon for Ipswich Central businesses.
We have also consolidated reports that led to the redevelopment into a draft Ipswich Central Master Plan. This plan will be released to the community for discussion about “Where to from here?”. Council’s goal is to attract even more businesses, prepare for the growth of the healthcare sector, and better support businesses located in our city’s heart.
Council’s leasing team is in discussions with more than 20 possible tenants for the retail, entertainment and food and beverage buildings owned by council. The plan is to refurbish these buildings before leasing them to new tenants and selling them to the private sector. In my view, council should not hold these buildings any longer than it needs to recoup as much money as possible for the city’s ratepayers.
I encourage you to visit the city heart, do a spot of shopping, take a look at the progress and grab a bite to eat at one of the many cafes. We all need to do our bit to support our traders during this challenging time, but there is a very bright light at the end of the tunnel.
