Toowoomba development: Major projects to be completed, hit key milestones in 2025 revealed
In what is expected to be another bumper year for the city’s development industry, more than $1bn worth of works are set to be completed or significantly advanced in 2025.
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More than $1.2bn worth of projects will be either completed or hit key milestones in Toowoomba over the next 12 months.
The year 2025 is expected to be another bumper year for the city’s development industry, with all major players gearing up with several major initiatives.
The projects include residential subdivisions, school and childcare works, commercial precincts and even manufacturing facilities.
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1. Officeworks
Developer Rob Weymouth’s new Officeworks project is slated for completion within a couple of months.
The $30m development on the corner of James and West streets in Harristown includes the national retailer as the anchor, plus two fast food tenancies in KFC and Starbucks.
Mr Weymouth, who is also the Toowoomba chair of Urban Developers Institute of Australia, said he had recently secured a furniture retailer as the final tenant for the site.
“It’s Provincial Home Living, they’ve been looking to get into Toowoomba for a while and they do a good offering — it’s going to be their first store in Toowoomba but it will go well here,” he said.
2. GemLife Highfields
Major over-50s development firm GemLife is hoping to finish work on its initial $200m development in Highfields by the end of 2025.
The project has been either in planning or under construction since 2017 and has sold nearly 320 homes so far, worth about $170m in sales.
Director Adrian Puljich said the completion of GemLife Highfields would pave the way for the company to ramp up development of the adjacent project Highfields Heights.
“We’ve had tremendous success with GemLife Highfields since 2018, it’s a project that has had a few expansion opportunities as the over-50s market looks to Toowoomba and Highfields for a treechange,” he said.
3. Toowoomba Grammar DET centre
Construction is now under way by Hutchinson Builders on Toowoomba Grammar School’s new design, engineering and technology (DET) building at its campus off Herries St.
The multimillion-dollar project, slated to launch in 2026, will cover four storeys and feature a mix of labs, classrooms, workshops, collaborating spaces and even a function room on the top floor.
Grammar headmaster John Kinniburgh said the new DET centre would better prepare students for a rapidly-changing economy and labour market.
“There are your traditional subjects in there too, like metal and wood areas, really advanced facilities, but we’ve also got cognitive learning spaces, collaborative learning spaces where we have virtual reality and augmented reality spaces,” he said.
“These are really areas and spaces that boys will be able to come together with multidisciplinary approaches, and the idea is to centralise that into this facility.”
4. Cressbrook Dam upgrade
One of the most expensive developments being completed in Toowoomba is the required upgrades to Cressbrook Dam’s spillway.
The $270m project needs to be finished by the Toowoomba Regional Council in the second-half of 2025.
It will widen the spillway to 35m and raise the dam’s wall by 2.5m.
The council’s handling of the upgrade has been the focus of political scrutiny, with the most recent budget seeing increased rates, delays to other projects and more borrowings.
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5. Gowrie Junction subdivision, stage one
Developer and head of HF Capital Management Edward Hodge has submitted a $30m plan for nearly 50 lots along Gowrie Tilgonda Road at Gowrie Junction.
The impact-assessable subdivision was lodged this month, with approval anticipated by the middle of 2025.
A public notification period will be carried out early next year.
Mr Hodge, a former Toowoomba branch president of the UDIA, said the first of two stages was expected to be finished within 12 months, weather permitting.
“Stage two will include some turnkey homes with spectacular views back towards Cotswold Hills,” he said.
6. Wellcamp Aerospace and Defence Precinct
Early works have already begun on Wagner Corporation’s new $550m aerospace and defence precinct, following a sod turning back in March.
The project includes international aircraft manufacturer Boeing as the anchor tenant, with the company to assemble its new uncrewed MQ-28 Ghost Bat aircraft at the facility.
The Ghost Bat is the first combat aircraft designed, engineered and manufactured in Australia in more than 50 years.
Wagner Corporation director Denis Wagner confirmed Boeing’s plant would be virtually completed by the end of 2025 ahead of a launch the following year.
The 9000sq m facility is expected to be finished three years from now and will include a range of other tenants from within the sector.
7. Salvation Army social housing project
Major charity the Salvation Army is among a number of organisations spearheading a huge amount of social housing development in Toowoomba.
It includes the Salvos’ $17m housing project on Snell St in the Toowoomba CBD, which is slated for completion by the middle of next year.
The 23-unit development is a short walk from public transport and major shopping precincts like Grand Central.
Speaking at the sod turn back in June, Salvos Queensland divisional commander Major Mark Everitt said tenants would be given direct access to services to transition them into longer-term housing.
“The Salvos like helping people directly, but this is a roof over their heads and we still wrap services around them and offer them as much as they can to find their permanent house,” he said.
Other social housing projects are being pushed forward in Newtown, including by St Vincent de Paul Society and Mission Australia.
8. Avenues of Highfields next stages
An award-winning subdivision north of Toowoomba that has been in development for years will have just three stages remaining by the end of 2025.
The Avenues of Highfields is currently completing stages 9b and 10 of its 13-stage project.
The construction includes a $4.5m upgrade to the New England Highway.
Project manager Stephen Bowers said stages 11 and 12 will start in 2025, followed the final 60 lots the following year.
9. Wirraglen subdivision
The civil works at Ian Knox’s 150-lot masterplanned subdivision Wirraglen in Kleinton could be substantially completed by the end of 2025.
Featuring three stages and a significant parkland running through the middle, the project has sold two-thirds of its available lots already.
“We’ve sold a 100 lots in three months – that’s extraordinary (because) there’s no supply, the demand is absolutely incredible,” Mr Knox said this month.
“I’ve never experienced selling a 100 lots in three month, and there’s another 50 to go, and they’ll be sold quickly.”
10. Kleinton childcare centre
A separate but related project in Kleinton by Ian Knox is the upcoming 100-space childcare centre along Kleinton Rd, which was approved earlier this year by the Toowoomba Regional Council.
Mr Knox said construction would start in early 2025, with the centre to be handed over to Queensland operator Una.
“We’ll start that in February and we’ll deliver it to the operator – they are from the Sunshine Coast and want a position in Toowoomba and they’ve taken up a 20 year lease,” he said.
11. Habitat Mount Kynoch
The first two stages of one of Toowoomba’s largest residential projects is expected to be delivered in 2025.
Habitat Mount Kynoch, between Toowoomba and Highfields, is well and truly under construction now, with the massive masterplanned community essentially creating a new suburb for the city.
Project manager Jacob McVeigh said the first 88 lots would be delivered before the first half of next year, weather permitting, with the next 73 lots to be finished by December.
The entire slate of works has been valued at about $30m.
Planning is also continuing on a major commercial precinct that front-ends Habitat along the New England Highway.
Dubbed Vue @ Habitat, the extensive project will sit directly next to and cater for the development of the housing estate.
12. Glenvale turnkey homes
More than a dozen private homes will be added to Glenvale’s housing supply before the end of 2025 by developers Rob and Cathy Weymouth.
The 14 turnkey homes are part of a retooled proposal for a $25m health and wellbeing development on land facing both Greenwattle and South streets that wraps around Sunset Superbowl.
Mr Weymouth said three-bedroom homes would be sold for upwards of $650,000, with the total project worth about $10m.
“It will be a nice residential estate and 900sq m of allied health (in the later stages),” he said.
13. Cotswold Hills subdivision
Developer Edward Hodge has moved ahead with 13 lots on McClevery Court in Cotswold Hills, not far from the recently approved Living Gems resort.
Construction is expected to start in May 2025.
The $10m development is believed to include some turnkey homes in it.
14. Gainsborough Lodge stage one
Wagner Corporation and the Richards Group are currently working on the first stage of massive subdivision Gainsborough Lodge, located at the site of the old stud farm at Wellcamp.
Once completed over several years, the approved subdivision will provide homes for about 800 residents.
But the partnership is already looking further afield, having started discussions with the council to develop the balance of the property out to Deuble Rd to double the number of residents.
Wagner Corp director Denis Wagner said he expected the first stage to be finished in 2025.
15. Wagners CFT expansion
Wagners’ publicly-owned company is also planning a greatly-needed expansion of its composite-fibre technology (CFT) manufacturing plant at the Wellcamp Business Park.
The major extension to its existing facilities will allow the company to produce utility pole up to 28m long.
Company chairman Denis Wagner said he expected the expansion to be ready before the end of 2025.
CFT utility poles are used in electricity networks across the world due to their durability compared to wooden poles.
16. Kearneys Spring clubhouse
More than 7000 Darling Downs athletes are set for a major boost after the announcement of $1.9m in funding towards the Kearneys Spring Recreation Reserve clubhouse upgrade from the Australian and Queensland governments.
The funding boost from the SEQ Liveability Fund from the federal and state governments will help the council deliver the $2.4m project, which broke ground earlier this year.
The upgrades include a new canteen facility, new toilet amenities, changeroom amenities, a medical room and meeting rooms.
Construction of the new building is expected to finish by the end of the year.
17. Glenvale childcare centre
A growing suburb in Toowoomba will get a new childcare centre in 2025, after plans were approved by Toowoomba Regional Council for a new 136-space facility next door to two schools.
Developer Edward Hodge of HF Capital Management plans to start construction within months on the new $12m centre on the corner of Glenvale and Boundary roads in Glenvale.
It will operate from 6am to 7pm, five days a week, and cater to newborn children right through to kindy and school-aged kids.
Work will start in the first quarter of 2025.
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Originally published as Toowoomba development: Major projects to be completed, hit key milestones in 2025 revealed
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