New youth gym earmarked for old Indooroopilly Bowls Club

After five years in liquidation the 78-year-old bowls club will be transformed into a hub for youth after the site was sold for more than $1 million, but will employees get their entitlements?

INDOOROOPILLY Bowls Club will be turned into a youth gym after the site was sold for $1.3 million following five years in liquidation.

The once-thriving club was put under external administration in 2014, unable to pay mounting debts following a major upgrade in 2009.

The 78-year-old bowls club sold for $1.3 million last week.

It will be transformed into a unique, youth-orientated training facility called Fitter Futures.

The company is expected to open from October 7 after a refurbishment of the old bowls club site.

Fitter Futures will relocate to Indooroopilly from the Sherwood Football Club at Chelmer.

Two separate businesses, including a yoga studio and cafe, are also earmarked for the bowls club site.

Worrells partners Morgan Lane and Michael Griffin were appointed liquidators of the Indooroopilly Bowls Club in 2014.

The Indooroopilly Bowls Club site was attached to the body corporate for Ciana CTS 39483

and had approvals for the property to operate as a bowls club, Mr Lane said.

“Despite various interested parties, numerous change-of-use applications and being under contract, the property located directly below 134 residential apartments has remained

vacant for some five years,” he said.

Club employees were paid all entitlements - except superannuation - at the time of the liquidation.

Superannuation entitlements will now be calculated following the sale.

Greg Rolls, Mark McAleer, Ben Walsh and Warren Birks at Indooroopilly Bowls Club when it went into liquidation in 2014. Pic: Patria Jannides

Former Indooroopilly Bowls Club chairman Neil Mason said members had no say in the future of the organisation following the appointment of liquidators.

“We had to make special arrangements for club members to get their bowls out of the clubhouse,” he said.

Almost all of the 150 close-knit members who once bowled at Indooroopilly have moved to nearby clubs.

“When you play sport together as a team you get to know the other players pretty well,” Mr Mason said.

“We’re disappointed in the way it has turned out.”

The former club chairman said the members would not see a cent of the sale, despite owning the freehold land.

“The bank will probably get most of its money and the liquidators will take their fee and the rest will get nothing,” he said.

Mr Mason blames the club’s downfall on poor decisions.

“I thought that the club received some bad advice and there would have been other options to keep the club going which the club didn’t take at the time,” he said.

Worrells engaged Knight Frank’s Adam Willmore to the long-running expressions of interest

campaign and to negotiate the ultimate sale.

Mr Lane said Mr Willmore worked relentlessly to explore the viability of more than 100 inquiries from buyers with diverse plans for how to use the property.

“It’s also a testament to how an insolvency appointment can bring about new possibilities for local business,” Mr Lane said.