New $15m shopping centre, Woolworths supermarket planned for Ruthven Street in North Toowoomba, traffic lights included in plan

A new $15m shopping centre slated for an inner-city Toowoomba suburb would alter a major arterial road in a significant way. Find out how here:

UPDATE: The developer behind a proposed $15m shopping precinct near the centre of Toowoomba says there is demand for its services.

Toowoomba’s Barry and Mitchell Bernoth have been revealed as the driving forces behind a new Woolworths-anchored centre on a large parcel of land on Ruthven Street in North Toowoomba.

PROPOSED: A 4300 sqm neighbourhood shopping centre with a Woolworths and service station has been proposed to the Toowoomba Regional Council.

Along with the supermarket giant, the “neighbourhood centre” would include a service station, specialty stores and a food and drink outlet.

If approved, it would be located just 300m south of Northpoint Shopping Centre, which already has a Coles and several fast food outlets.

Barry Bernoth said Woolworths had been identified as the preferred tenant, arguing there was demand for the company in northern Toowoomba.

Developer Barry Bernoth.

“Woolworths should be in that northern end of town — people like to have a choice, so it’s nice to be able to provide that choice to people,” he said.

“When it’s completed, the Woolworths will be a key tenant so they’ll need to be there but we didn’t have the room for 20 other tenants.

“It’s not going to be a Northpoint, but it’s a pretty big parcel of land.”

Mr Bernoth said he wanted customers to be able to turn into the site heading southbound on Ruthven Street, with the proposal included new traffic lights.

“If they’re inbound, there will have to be a slip lane,” he said.

“We’d need to widen the road to cater for that, and there might be traffic lights there so that would be part of the approval process.”

The council has yet to respond to the application.

NEW $15M SHOPPING CENTRE PLANNED FOR NORTH TOOWOOMBA

A massive shopping centre with a new Woolworths supermarket, service station and food outlet has been proposed just a few hundred metres from an existing commercial precinct.

Applicant The Hervery B Trust and The Takura Trust lodged plans with the Toowoomba Regional Council last week to build a 4300 sqm “neighbourhood shopping centre” along Ruthven Street in North Toowoomba.

The site, which comprises a collection of 12 different parcels between Ruthven, Hagan and Isaac streets, is currently being used for residential and industrial purposes.

While details were not available on the directors of the trust, the land was partly owned by local developers Barry and Mitchell Bernoth as well as Ivan and Julie Johnston.

But according to the planning report by JFP Urban Consultants and plans by architect Thomson Adsett, the site could be turned into a Woolworths supermarket, a 200 sqm fuel station and 200 sqm food and drink outlet, with 186 car parks attached.

“The proposed development has been architecturally designed to be modern and unobtrusive,

to ensure the proposal reinforces a distinctive subtropical lifestyle through shopfront awnings

at the building entrances, large windows, subtropical landscaping and an arbour awning,” the report said.

“Emphasis has also been placed on delivering an attractive streetscape facade at Ruthven Street, Isaac Street and Hagan Street and providing a “human scale” built form outcome.”

The site is just 300m away from Northpoint Shopping Centre, which currently has a Coles and Aldi, and less than 300m away from another service station on the other side of the road.

The lodgement follows an extensive pre-lodgement process with the council and the state government that started back in March.

Following the meeting, the applicant commissioned an economic impact assessment by Ethos Urban to respond to concerns from council planners about a new shopping centre not far from an existing precinct.

PROPOSED: A 4300 sqm neighbourhood shopping centre with a Woolworths and service station has been proposed to the Toowoomba Regional Council.

The report concluded the $15 million project would turn over more than $30 million in revenue a year and employ more than 170 people once completed.

It also argued the current main trade area of northern Toowoomba was under-supplied by “full-line supermarkets”.

“In the balance of the MTA only one full-line supermarket is currently operating, and the market demand for additional retail facilities in the area exists,” the report said.

“The proposed North Toowoomba Shopping Centre is to be anchored by a full-line supermarket which would be able to offer local residents with an alternative choice for a full range of supermarket products.”

However, the report did estimate Northpoint would lose more than $7 million a year in revenue and Grand Central would lose $8.8 million in 2024, but argued that continued population growth in the trade area would mitigate those losses by 2027.

Reports were also submitted relating to civil engineering, traffic impacts and landscaping.

Because the project is impact-assessable, the applicant must run a public notification campaign so neighbours and residents can have their say.

Originally published as New $15m shopping centre, Woolworths supermarket planned for Ruthven Street in North Toowoomba, traffic lights included in plan