‘Handbrake on Nambour’: Leaders call for action on Council’s underused Eddie De Vere building to help activate CBD
A prominent Nambour business leader has warned that the severely underused Eddie De Vere building has become a handbrake on the CBD economy.
Nambour Groups chair Rhonda Billett, who has operated businesses locally for 27 years, says the council administration building should be one of the town’s biggest civic assets.
It once accommodated about 600 workers a day, but now has an estimated 100 to 150. This was since council transferred the bulk of its workforce to the new City Hall in Maroochydore in 2022.
She said the effects of the disappearance of hundreds of workers from the centre of Nambour had flowed directly through to local businesses. “When you take 400 or 500 people a day out of the CBD, you take away people who were buying lunch, grabbing a coffee, shopping before or after work and generally contributing to the economic tapestry of the town,” Ms Billett said.
“This council building has been like this for years and we still don’t have the vision, leadership or firm decisions we need about what happens next.”
The criticism comes as $2.642 million is being spent on maintenance works at the Eddie De Vere building, according to figures provided to Nambour Groups, with Ms Billett saying annual maintenance expenditure has typically exceeded $1 million per year.
Council had recently been considering an approximately $55 million redevelopment of its Eddie De Vere buildings and library, including an integrated district library, community spaces and council offices. But the major project was shelved amid council budget pressures.
Council’s latest project update says essential renewal works involving glazing and roofing are being undertaken, while feasibility and design work continues into activating surplus space. It acknowledges that certainty about the “scope, timing and funding” of civic infrastructure would help encourage private investment in Nambour.
Ms Billett said maintenance without a clear long-term purpose was no longer enough.
“I’m pretty done with band aid solutions for Nambour,” she said. “Private investors are here investing now. I liaise with them regularly and they are setting a new economic bar for the CBD. Council needs to do its bit, rather than economically lagging behind and holding Nambour’s prosperity back.”
The contrast with Caloundra is particularly stark.
Council completed the transformation of the former Caloundra administration building into Library+ in September last year, creating a three-level library, community, meeting and council facility as part of a broader project aimed at activating the Caloundra CBD.
Ms Billett said Nambour deserved the same level of ambition.
Previous future concepts for Eddie De Vere have included tertiary education and community uses. Ms Billett said other possibilities should also be considered, including selling the site for private redevelopment if council could not afford to realise its potential itself.
Residential conversion of the existing building is considered impractical because of building and fire compliance requirements. “Unfortunately unless the building was demolished, it could not become housing due mostly to residential compliance and fire laws.”
Nambour Groups now plans to ask residents what they believe should happen to the building, with ideas to feed into its developing Nambour Economic Road Map.
“We need to evaluate whether continually spending money maintaining a substantially underutilised building is delivering the best outcome for Nambour,” Ms Billett said. “This is an important piece of community real estate. It could provide places for people, jobs, education or another economic use that brings people back into the CBD.
“Nambour already has so much of the infrastructure it needs. What it needs now is decisions and investment.”
