Inside O’Connell Holdings’ plan for new shopping centre

A growing supermarket squeeze on the Cooloola Coast will get some serious relief under a proposal to open a new commercial hub. Check out our sneak peek, including artist’s impressions of the finished project:

O'Connell Holdings, who own the Rainbow Beach IGA, have lodged plans for a new supermarket and shopping centre space at Rainbow Beach, to be built on three vacant Rainbow Beach Rd blocks.

A growing supermarket squeeze at Rainbow Beach will get some serious relief under a proposal to open a new commercial hub in the popular tourist town and home of the Rainbow Beach Fishing Classic.

O’Connell Holdings Pty Ltd, the owner of the town’s IGA supermarket, has lodged plans to transform three vacant blocks along the main road into a combination retail and residential complex.

The retail portion will include space for a supermarket, and smaller shop spaces which could become home to a range of services including food outlets, health services and offices.

Three units will be built on the second floor of a separate commercial building to be built as part of the project.

The blocks are 200m south of the Rainbow Beach Shopping Centre, and the proposed development may have a significant impact on that precinct’s future.

The proposed new centre would include commercial space for a supermarket, plus smaller outlets which could become home to food outlets, health services or offices.

An economic report carried out by Bull and Bear Economics in September 2022 on behalf of the council found the Rainbow Beach IGA was at “full capacity and requires additional room for expansion”, but did not have the room to do so at its home in the shopping centre.

It suggested a potential new home for the IGA on a vacant block at Clarkson Rd, the development application says, however the council (which owns the land) “was not receptive to the applicant’s proposals”.

Three units are planned to be built on the second floor of a smaller commercial building proposed for the site.

The Bull and Bear report also found 10 per cent of the Rainbow Beach supermarket share was being captured by greater Gympie as a region, “providing further evidence” of “insufficient supermarket floor space to service the Rainbow Beach community”.

Compounding the problem was that only 235sq m of vacant commercial space existed with the town’s Local Centre Zone.

If approved, the development will be built in three stages.

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The first would involve construction of the supermarket and three smaller shops.

Stage two would deliver a smaller retail space to the south of the supermarket, and the final stage would involve construction of the three units on the second floor of this shop.

Parking for 155 cars will be provided in the finished complex, with 55 under the main supermarket building and 80 more on the southern half of the development.

The proposed supermarket would sit next door to a new service station under construction at Rainbow Beach Rd.