New Nambour housing plan revisits key CBD corner
Artist’s impression of the proposed Nambour development.
A major redevelopment has been proposed for a prominent Nambour site, reshaping a block that has long been home to ageing and largely vacant buildings.
ARM Property Investment Group has lodged plans for a five-storey complex with 152 one-bedroom units on the corner of Currie and Bury streets, opposite the library. The $50 million project would replace seven older commercial buildings, including food outlets and cafes, with two linked towers featuring rooftop gardens, a gym and shared spaces.
The proposal comes two years after an earlier plan by the same group, led by local businessman and developer Rod Constantinides, was rejected by council. That scheme called for a six-storey apartment building with a childcare centre and gym on the ground floor.
Mr Constantinides is a passionate advocate for Nambour and wants to see Nambour’s CBD revitalised. “We need to bring life back to the main street and support the people already working to fix the town.”
If approved, the development would also include ground-floor retail spaces and 73 car parks. It is code-assessable but must be referred to the State Assessment and Referral Agency because it fronts Currie Street.
Q&A with developer Rod Constantinides
• How do you see this project contributing to the revitalisation of Nambour’s CBD?
I think any development in Nambour at this point is going to help build confidence for the area. Residential should be near shops, cafes, workplaces and amenities, not isolated in an urban sprawl setting where one must get in a car and drive to a cafe. I do think old Nambour residential is reasonably well designed in that it is not over a kilometre drive to get into town, I lived on Aspland Street for years and it was a short walk into town with nice street trees and wide roads if you were riding a bike. But the CBD just needs a tidy up, as nice as some of the old hardwood timber buildings are on that (Currie St, Bury St) corner, they are tired and not suited to the businesses of today. The entire corner was bulky goods and large showroom spaces which are not really conducive to the smaller businesses that want to lease them.
• What steps will you take to ensure the development integrates with the heritage character of Currie Street?
We have followed the request of the town planners in an original pre-lodgement of the previous design to integrate a more “fine-grain” roofline, the materials chosen represent the old brick buildings of which some still exist in Nambour and we have ensured all dwellings have access to a front and back verandah/balcony to allow as much natural light and ventilation through the building.
• What has been the community response so far?
Not sure about Nambour but we have had a lot of people outside Nambour show interest in the project. I believe a lot of people have their eyes on Nambour waiting for it to turn before they confidently invest. That is generally the nature of the game, and hopefully our risk encourages others on the fence to bring their money to the town.
• If approved, what is your timeline for starting construction and completing the project?
We would commence construction documentation once we get a green light and provide existing tenants time to relocate and then commence.
• What will this project mean to you and to Nambour?
It has been the longest I've ever worked on a design and feasibility of a project, there are a lot of complexities that come with Nambour development due to old infrastructure, so an approval will be a huge milestone, as you know we had a proposal a few years ago by Sparks we have also had 2-3 other designs since but never released as they didn't work for various reasons.
• Would it have been easier to try and get this project done elsewhere on the Coast?
It depends where. In the Maroochydore CBD, yes, I would say partly because the Council was so encouraging for developers in there but mostly because the infrastructure meets today’s code as it is new, the same in industrial subdivisions. If you buy some land that has been subdivided by a land developer, the infrastructure and the complexities of the site were dealt with prior and you just need your building design approved really. In Nambour there are power supply issues, stormwater issues, easement issues and the feasibility issue where it generally costs you more to build an apartment than you would get to sell it. So no one is doing it.
• What do you see is the formula for success for CBD revitalisation?
Everyone who cares, keep chipping away at it in your own space, whatever that is. If you run a business make sure the business is worth travelling too. I will use The Pottery Studio that I am now a co-owner of as an example. There are very few places on the whole Sunshine Coast where you can go and do something like The Pottery Studio offers. We were able to keep that alive through the hard times because we sacrificed and stayed positive and pivoted where necessary. We now have around 100 members who nearly all travel from outside Nambour to use the space. I have personally had customers tell me they were scared to come to Nambour. But since coming to The Pottery Studio some had actually relocated there after realising it was a nice place to be. Another is Maiori Pizza, our tenant in one of the buildings who will hopefully relocate to the new building. They have brought an amazing Pizza business to Nambour that attracts people from all over. Those, to me, are a positive to Nambour and the more we support locals doing great things the sooner Nambour will be a destination suburb for many people.
