Monday, 30 July, 2012
Sunshine Coast Daily
2nd October 2007
Leading local car dealer Garry Crick has bought into the development, with construction due to start early next year on a Mercedes dealership close to the Harvey Normal complex. National retirement village operator Living Choice has also bought six hectares in Sunshine Cove where it plans to build a village for up to 500 residents. And earlier this year, Reed Property Group paid a reported $30 million for 8.5ha in Sunshine Cove where it plans to create a residential and mixed-use commercial development. Speaking at the Maroochydore Chamber of Commerce AGM on Thursday night, managing director Ken Reed said through its Sunshine Cove project and the redevelopment of the Big Top Shopping Centre(to be called metro), Reed has $1.6 billion worth of investment planned for Maroochydore over the next 10 years. Mr Reed said the company planned to lodge a development application for metro in the near future, adding major projects needed to happen “to retain Maroochydore’s designation as the Coast’s principal activity centre.”
Another major player in Maroochydore is Sunshine Plaza manager Lend Lease which recently unveiled its $240 million plaza extension, the company’s Queensland development manager Brad Meyers saying he hoped construction would start early next year. He said the project, which will add 17,000 sqm on the Sunshine Plaza site, was expected to create 1400 jobs during construction and 850 direct retail jobs on completion, with a multiplier effect of 6000 jobs in the wider community. The expansion will be largely centred on land on the Plaza parade side of the centre, presently occupied by Woolworths and a dozen or so other shops including Office Works, Kleenmaid and Camera House. All of them except Woollies will be pulled down and replaced by a two-storey complex with elevated connections across Cornmeal Creek to the Plaza proper. The Project will also include construction of a four-or-five storey car park on vacant land fronting Plaza Parade, to provide an additional 1400 parking spaces.
Other key elements to Maroochydore’s transformation will be the relocation of the Horton Park Golf Course out of town and subsequent redevelopment of the land by investment bank Babcock & Brown, that project is likely to rival the investment at Sunshine Cove, and also the construction of a $48 million health hub by the state government on a 20ha site between the proposed Harvey Norman development and Sunshine Motorway.
Maroochydore will be the focus for employment, government services and civic and entertainment facilities.
The projects already underway or well advanced will no doubt be joined by numerous others once Maroochy council’s structure plan for the area encompassed by its major development Area in Maroochydore is finalised. Also speaking on Thursday night, council’s strategies planning Officer Simon Kichington said the structure plan, to be presented to council next month, would encourage the development required to underpin Maroochydore’s status as the Sunshine Coast’s Principal Activity Centre. He said the plan would identify the need for an additional 110,000sq m of office space in the medium term.
The Major Development Area takes in Sunshine Cove, Horton Park Golf Course, Sunshine Plaza, the Big Top Shopping Centre site, Aerodrome Road and Sugar Road/Maud Street. “As the Principal Activity Centre, Maroochydore will be the focus for employment, government services and civic and entertainment facilities,” Mr Kichington said. “A lot of investment is required to make the projected population growth sustainable and council understands the need to get these key sites happening.” Mr Cassidy said people disillusioned with how long it had taken to get central Maroochydore moving would be reassured by what was happening. “The big message is, there has been an awful lot of planning but now we’re seeing that translate into actual work on the ground,” he said.
Tags: better lifestyle, investment, land, major development, Maroochydore, more jobs, opportunity
Posted in Press Clippings
