Employment generator: Medical centre, offices, retail pegged for development

Plans have been revealed for a nine-storey healthcare and retail development just metres from Brisbane’s biggest shopping centre and a key hospital.

A developer has put forward plans for a nine-storey healthcare focused building just a few hundred metres from Westfield Chermside and the Prince Charles Hospital, after seeing an opportunity to generate employment and compliment those existing businesses.

L&A Maccheron Property has lodged a development application to build a nine-storey healthcare focused development, comprising of a medical centre, specialist consulting suites, commercial office space, and ground floor retail and food outlets at 690-706 Gympie Road and 11-15 Wallace Street.

The proposed development is located close to both the Prince Charles Hospital and St Vincent’s Private Hospital and 400 metres from Westfield Chermside.

The commercial and healthcare development at Chermside would be nine-storeys high. Picture: Brisbane City Council DA Tracker

The site is also next to QML pathology, Wallace Street Specialist Centre and Brisbane North Eye Centre.

The proposed development would activate the ground level with retail and health care spaces, outdoor dining and landscaping oriented to Gympie Road.

The upper levels would accommodate a mix of health care facilities on levels four and five, with offices on levels seven and eight.

Vehicle access would be provided via Wallace Street.

The ground level would be activated with retail and food space, while the upper levels would house healthcare facilities and office space. Picture: Brisbane City Council DA Tracker

“The broader area is notably transitioning from a small business hub and low-density residential area to a medium to high density residential area and large business hub,” the application reads.

“This is evident through a variety of development approvals being granted in the surrounding locality for mixed use and multiple dwelling developments (including a range of healthcare focused developments).

“The site presents a range of contextual and planning characteristics that create the opportunity for a healthcare focused development that will contribute to a mix of land uses that support the Chermside Shopping Centre (Principal Centre), will create a range of employment and activation opportunities and will complement the surrounding medical services provided in the locality.”

The proposal comprises a total gross floor area of 6,940m2