Sydney Tools hardware plans to open near Gympie Bunnings

A new big player in the hardware business wants to open in Gympie, a stone’s throw from Bunnings, but the application fee alone to Gympie council is $64,000.

Hardware chain Sydney Tools is eyeing an expansion to Gympie, as part of a development proposal by Bayswater Holdings.

Major hardware chains Bunnings and Mitre 10 may soon have some new competition in the neighbourhood, with rapidly expanding Sydney Tools planning to open shop in Gympie.

Developer Bayswater Holdings has lodged an application with Gympie Regional Council to build the new hardware showroom and warehouse on a vacant block on the opposite side of the Bruce Hwy to Bunnings, between the highway and Kelly Drive.

The proposed location would be next door to Gympie Mazda’s new dealership.

CoreLogic RP Data records show Bayswater Holdings bought the half-hectare block in December 2022 for $2.5 million.

The proposed one-storey showroom would include 2927sq m of floor area and be split into two tenancies, one about 600sq m larger than the other.

The application says the larger shop would be leased to Sydney Tools.

A tenant has not yet been found for the smaller store.

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Sydney Tools opened its first shop at Dulwich Hill in 2001, and now has more than 80 across the country.

Sydney Tools was founded in 2001 in the inner western suburbs of the city bearing the same name.

It eventually expanded beyond the initial Dulwich Hill store, with its website saying it opened its 15th shop (at Blackburn, Melbourne) in 2017, its 30th shop (at Archerfield, Brisbane) in 2019, and its 80th store (at Regency Park, South Australia) in 2023.

The retail chain is already established in the Wide Bay Burnett, with a proposed outlet at Bundaberg getting the green light by the region’s council in 2021.

The new showroom is proposed to be built on a block of land wedged between the Bruce Hwy and Kelly Dr, at Glanmire, directly opposite Bunnings.

Fifty parking spaces would be included for customers and staff on site.

This would be five less than the minimum number required for the development, but Bayswater Holdings argues in the application 50 spaces would still be “sufficient”.

The council has not yet made any decision on the application.

The proposal is shaping up as a not-insignificant investment for Bayswater Holdings already: The lodged documents calculate the application fee at more than $64,000, the lodged document says, and the infrastructure charges for the project would exceed $475,000.