Tree Changers Prompt Toowoomba Tower Plans

Developers are increasingly looking up on Queensland’s Darling Downs as high-end apartment living gains traction in the Toowoomba CBD.

Interest in the market’s potential has ramped up with the influx of new residents and the sale almost two years ago of a sprawling five-bedroom penthouse for $2.61 million.

The latest proposed apartment development for the regional city—125km west of Brisbane—is a 10-storey medium-rise tower as part of a mixed-use precinct.

It is earmarked for the city’s historic Gasworks site, a longstanding vacant triangular 1.05ha holding on the corner of Neil Street and Chalk Drive.

Under the plans, it would comprise 56 apartments across nine residential levels sitting above seven retail tenancies on the ground floor.

A second building would accommodate a 4293sq m supermarket—part of the Fresh and Save Food Warehouse chain—plus three retail tenancies.

The development application has been lodged with the Toowoomba Regional Council by an entity linked to Sydney-based developer Gerard Hanna, who acquired the site in 2022 for $3.96 million.

The landmark site sits within the 51.3ha Toowoomba Railway Parklands Priority Development Area, which also encompasses the city’s historic industrial heart alongside the current train station and rail yards.

Toowoomba’s gasworks operated in the precinct from 1878 to 1960 before being decommissioned. Full remediation of the site has been undertaken.

A planning report said it was anticipated the proposal would drive investor interest and be a catalyst for other further development within the PDA and Toowoomba’s inner-north.

“The proposal seeks to establish a mixed use urban village on a prominent large consolidated landholding, that contributes to increasing residential density and provides a high quality urban environment, which will drive complementary development within the PDA and increase confidence in the inner city area,” it said.

Designed by architecture firm Buchan, the centrepiece of the mixed use precinct would be a landscaped linear pedestrian plaza anchored by the reinstated gasworks brick chimney.

▲ Renders of the proposed mixed-use redevelopment of Toowoomba’s historic Gasworks site.

“The architectural design of the proposed buildings has taken cues from the face brick and corrugated iron sheeting reminiscent of the site’s previous industrial buildings,” the documents said.

“The proposed linear pedestrian plaza will provide a meeting and event space, the new retail offerings will provide retail choice for consumers and the residential tower will provide housing diversity and density in a well- connected inner city location.”

A mix of one, two, three and four-bedroom apartments is aimed to target “a wide cross-section of residents including empty-nesters, inner city professionals, country people who want a low maintenance city base”.

The integrated complex also would incorporate 217 carparking spaces—of which 99 would be for residents.

Late last year, Toowoomba-based FKG Group filed plans for a seven-storey, 19-units residential building at Kitchener Street, East Toowoomba, to tap into the city’s rising demand for apartment living.

Local property agent and Real Estate Institute of Queensland Toowoomba chair Daniel Burrett said population growth was driving the shift and desire for developers to test the waters.

“Even though Toowoomba has got a lot of money, and people are prepared to spend it if they find what they're after, there is quite a scarcity of high-end apartments,” he told The Urban Developer.

“It's a very conservative town and the locals are just not used to that style of living.

“But there's been a massive influx of people coming from out-of-town, and many of them are used to it and like that inner-city lifestyle.

“A lot of people are getting pushed out financially from the bigger cities like Brisbane and Sydney, and they're looking to cheaper regional cities.

“Also, because there's been such a shift towards hybrid work models and work-from-home, people can now live in these regional areas and still be able to work for the major corporations.”

Burrett said only two other residential towers had been built in Toowoomba in the past few years—both by the same developer and fully occupied by “corporate rentals, executive couples and the like”.

“And so I think a lot of other developers are now waiting to see how the latest couple of developments play out and and what the feedback is from the market.

“Then, that’ll give them a lot more confidence going forward.”