Fitness studio plans pitched for former Maroochy Co-Op Shop in Yandina

Fresh plans for a Sunshine Coast shopfront dating back to the early 1900s with a local heritage listing have been unveiled.

A longstanding shop in the heart of Yandina with a local heritage listing could become a new fitness studio, a proposal has revealed.

A development application lodged to Sunshine Coast Council by URBN Town Planning on behalf of Key Holding and Investments Pty Ltd shows plans to set up a fitness studio at 2A Stevens Street, Yandina.

The building has been listed as a local heritage property under the Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme 2014, which recommends preservation for development applications.

The building is not on the Queensland Heritage Register.

Application documents show the fitness studio or gym will use the existing building with “no impact on elements that contribute to its heritage significance”.

Minor alterations have been outlined, being an installation of a partition to create a reception area, removal of change rooms from the previous tenancy and reconfiguration of the staffroom to include a shower and change room.

Proposed changes to the rear end of 2A Stevens Street, Yandina. Photo: Linea Design and Drafting

It is also proposed to replace an existing window and rear access stairs with a doorway, new stairs and landing, which would not impact the street frontage, documents state.

First established as a general store in 1909, the building went on to house the Maroochydore Co-Op store, formally the Maroochy Co-operative Cash Store, for many decades, and has been most recently used as a shop.

A commercial real estate listing shows the shop was a Ringers Western clothing store.

2A Stevens Street, Yandina was listed for lease earlier this year by Ray White Commercial Noosa and Sunshine Coast. Photo: contributed.

The application defined an indoor sport and recreation use to be an “accepted development” in a Local Centre Zone under the Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme.

Documents have included an excerpt of Sunshine Coast Council’s planning scheme policy for heritage and character areas overlay code which provides a history of the site.

The passage reads that John McNab, a “prominent early citizen”, had the building constructed in 1909 and operated as a general store.

Delving further into the planning scheme policy, it reads Mr McNab sold the store in 1911 and, after two more owners, Maroochy Cooperative Cash Stores Ltd. bought the shop in 1919.

The Maroochy Co-Op store remained open for 50 years, and the “co-operative spirit” which spurred the birth of the store continued through the Great Depression.

Maroochy Co-operative Cash Store and staff, Stevens Street, Yandina, ca 1925. Photo: contributed

The shop offered struggling farmers 12 months’ credit and the 1940s became the store’s most profitable period, leading to an extension built in the 1950s, the policy reads.

It is noted the Maroochy Co-Op store struggled financially in the early 1960s, ultimately merging with the Nambour and District Cooperative Society in 1963.

“The Maroochy Co-operative Cash Store was the longest operating co-operative store in Queensland at the time it merged with the Nambour society,” the policy states.

In addition to owning several general stores, Mr McNab also served as a councillor and chairman of the Caboolture Shire Council, which Landsborough had been a been a part of, as well as the Landsborough Shire Council after it formed in 1912, the policy reads.

In 1918, Mr McNab had also been the chair of the committee to discuss the co-operative scheme which led to the establishment of the Maroochy Co-Op store.