Council to support refresh of city centre sites

Six inner-city buildings, including the former Masonic Temple, Sturt St Event Cinemas and Citilink Building, will be renewed with the support of Townsville City Council following the awarding of this year’s Improving Building Facades program grants.

The six recipient businesses will share in a cash pool of $250,000, supporting projects that are designed to improve city centre attractiveness, support local jobs and secure business activity.

Councillors unanimously voted today in support of the roll-out of this year’s grants, provided as one component of the city’s broader, four-pronged City Activation and Housing Incentives Policy.

Townsville Acting Mayor Ann-Maree Greaney said the program, which is in its fifth year, saw Council match dollar-for-dollar investment of up to $50,000 for eligible projects.

As a Council we’re very passionate about improving and activating our city streets, and we love seeing building owners invest in our city's attractiveness, vibrancy and safety.

Townsville Acting Mayor Ann-Maree Greaney

Councillor Greaney said, in total, this year’s round of grants would see well over half a million dollars directly invested into beautifying building facades within the centre of the city.

“There are some really exciting projects in this year’s group of grant recipients, many of which will inject far more than their dollar-for-dollar grant requirement in bringing some of these buildings back to life,” Cr Greaney said.

“Over the last five years, we have seen more than 36 buildings take up the grant, assisting in the revival of some of our city’s most worn-out properties such as the Queens Building, the Empire Hotel and the building that now houses Papa Christos deli on Stokes St.

“The grants have assisted proactive building owners to breathe new life into often-dilapidated sites, in turn contributing to the creation of a modern Townsville city centre that we can all be proud of and collectively enjoy.

“As a Council we’re very passionate about improving and activating our city streets, and we love seeing building owners invest in our city's attractiveness, vibrancy and safety.

“The grant has been extremely successful in recent years, and we are very excited to see what will be delivered out of this round.”

Part-owner of the Citilink building, Ottos Markets owner Don Peel, said the Improving Building Facades grant would support an exciting facelift of the site.

“We are very grateful of the Council’s generosity in regards to brightening up the CBD,” he said.

“We love the CBD here in Townsville and Townsville has always been a great supporter of Otto’s.

“I think there could be a beautiful gourmet food emporium in the future down the line and we will be working with the architects and other stakeholders on those sorts of projects so keep your eye out for any developments on that front.”

I think there could be a beautiful gourmet food emporium in the future down the line and we will be working with the architects and other stakeholders on those sorts of projects so keep your eye out for any developments on that front.

Part-owner of the Citilink building, Ottos Markets owner Don Peel

Mr Peel said the new Citilink owners were prioritising the façade upgrades as well the building’s infrastructure and accessibility, including to the inter-connected Ogden Street carpark.

The recipients of this year’s Improving Building Facades program are:

• 358-362 Flinders St (Citilink building) – $50,000
• 282 Sturt St (Former Sturt St Event Cinema) – $50,000
• 249-251 Flinders St (“41 Denham Street” building) – $50,000
• 390-396 Flinders St (Metway Building) – $50,000
• 42 Walker St (Former Masonic Temple) – $43,000
• 13 Palmer St (Former Seasoned restaurant) – $7,000

The grant is one element of Council's City Activation and Housing Incentives Policy, with Component 1 waiving infrastructure charges for infill housing, Component 3 supporting employment generating developments through waivers of infrastructure charges and Component 4 supporting the adaptive reuse of heritage buildings in the city centre.