Former councillor questions council’s priorities given $55 million price tag for Eddie De Vere building revamp

Greg Rogerson, Rhonda Billett, Mark Bray and Cr David Law after their recent meeting where the $55 million figure was raised.

A $55 million price tag for the for-now-shelved redevelopment of Nambour’s Council administration building has sparked criticism from a former councillor.

Sunshine Coast Council had budgeted about $55 million for the redevelopment of Nambour’s council administration building. The project would involve the Eddie De Vere building & library at the corner Currie and Bury Street and streetscaping of the area. The large sum raised alarm bells with former Div 10 councillor Greg Rogerson.

“I really don’t think the community and business leaders of Nambour have been fully briefed,” Mr Rogerson said. “The first time I heard that $55 million figure was when Cr David Law raised it at a round table meeting that Rhonda Billett (I am Nambour), Mark Bray (Chamber of Commerce President) and I had with him,” he said.

That meeting followed Council’s decision to defer the project by six years. The deferral was apparently necessary due to a $20 million budget shortfall caused by a miscalculation of depreciation, as revealed by Council earlier this year.

“Apparently $45.4 million has been spent on the refurbishment of the Caloundra Council Chambers and Cr Law used this spending to justify the $55 million price tag for the revamp of the Nambour Chambers and a new Library,” Mr Rogerson said. “Just because a huge amount of money was spent elsewhere – and spent poorly in my opinion – this doesn’t justify a spend of $55 million for something that would be at best ‘nice to have’.

“I can’t understand the thinking. The building is fine as it is. I believe no one in Nambour was properly consulted or briefed on the proposal. Spending $55 million on the Council Chambers will do diddly squat to improve the business acumen and liveability within Nambour.”

Mr Rogerson said Cr Law was urging the Nambour community to write en masse to the mayor and councillors, calling for the $55 million project to be reinstated in next year’s budget. Yet Cr Law voted in favour of the 2025/26 Council Budget, which removed the very projects he is now championing.

“Even putting to one side the outlandish chambers and library refurb money ($55 million), he still voted for a paltry, downgraded $1.05 million for the Currie, Howard, Mill Streets intersection (streetscaping) project, which is a worthwhile project and which requires at least three times that amount to get just a half decent job done.

“Nambour got a pittance!”

Mr Rogerson said he wanted to make it clear that in the future it would be good to have a new library and facilities with better access, more space, better carparking for patrons and with increased meeting spaces for Nambour. But “at present what we’ve got is quite adequate under the current financial circumstances”.

“Nambour needs projects undertaken now which will entice business investment and promote community pride in our very neglected, but much-loved town.”

Ms Billett, who was also at the meeting later said she was surprised by the high figure but welcomed any investment in Nambour. Chamber President Mark Bray remained neutral.

Cr Law has framed the project as an important and much-needed major project that would help signal council’s commitment to the town’s future and inspire the type of private investment in the CBD that Cr Rogerson is talking about. He said it would lift the appeal of the town at its entrance.

“There is no other way to get this sort of investment in Nambour,” he said. “We need to look at this with a future mindset. I got council to spend money in Nambour and then it got cut.”

In the meantime, Cr Law said he was going to continue working away at the mayor and other councillors to get the project back in the budget. “The social impact of investment like this in one place will have a broader impact across the wider community,” he said.

The proposed redevelopment was to include a new district library, community spaces, customer service centre and administrative offices for the remaining council staff that haven’t moved to City Hall, Maroochydore.

Revelation of the $55 million figure may add fuel to criticism that Council’s priorities are out of step with the town’s most pressing needs.

It comes in light of the recent 2025–26 Council budget which raised residential rates by between 7.4 and 11.14 per cent, placing the Sunshine Coast in second place on a list of Queensland’s most expensive local government areas.

Council had already relocated more than 200 staff from Nambour to its new $100 million City Hall in Maroochydore – a move seen by many in the hinterland as a symbolic retreat from the region’s former administrative heart. Cr Law, whose term began after the decision was made to build City Hall, said he fought hard to ensure some 200 staff remained in Nambour.

The Nambour project now joins a list of major civic redevelopments that have come under recent scrutiny. Council’s Caloundra administration centre upgrade originally priced at $34.8 million cost $45.4 million. Its Maroochydore City Hall project, originally forecast at $80 million, ultimately cost $100 million, plus a further $20 million for a nearby carpark.