Suburban shopping strip to get stunning makeover

A government cash injection will help a once-thriving shopping strip regain its icon status.

Racecourse Road Business Group’s plan to upgrade the road ambience by hanging fairy lights in trees, such as Mosman Council has done in their Village Green, pictured above. Picture: Mosman Council/Supplied

RACECOURSE Road traders are celebrating after scoring two government cash injections that will transform the shopping strip back to its former glory.

Federal MP for Brisbane Trevor Evans and Brisbane City Hamilton Ward Councillor David McLachlan announced this morning that their governments were giving a $300,000 cash injection to a project that will see thousands of fairy lights sparkle in the iconic shopping strip’s roadside trees.

There are also plans for a dramatic entrance sign, which will welcome people from the busy Kingsford Smith Drive end of the street.

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The idea is to create a sparkling thoroughfare, visually uniting the nearly 1km street from its Kingsford Smith Drive intersection to the Eagle Farm Racecourse gates.

Alex Sterling, lead barista at Journey Cafe and bar, on Racecourse Road, Ascot. Picture: AAP/Renae Droop

Mr Evans said that a $150,000 Federal grant would be given to Brisbane City Council, who would mentor the Racecourse Road Business Group through the project. Cr McLachlan said council would match the grant dollar-for-dollar, plus give assistance through their Village Precincts team. RRBG has a steering committee which will co-ordinate the project.

“It’s fair to say that after so many challenges that those small businesses have faced in recent years, there is a sense of excitement about this good news and that there is momentum in their direction,” Mr Evans said.

“Racecourse Road have a good set of established street trees and for (the RRBG) the priority is lighting them to create ambience, as well as establishing an entrance statement, to try and tie the entire shopping strip together.”

Kingsford Smith Drive construction work around Racecourse Road in October 10, 2018. Years of roadwork have reduced traffic into the street, traders say. (AAP Image/Richard Walker)

Traders on the street have endured a number of disruptions in recent years, including extensive upgrade work on Kingsford Smith Drive, which was due to finish this year but has been extended by up to a year due to design problems. At the same time, Brisbane Racing Club (BRC) moved racing events from the Eagle Farm Racecourse, at the other end of the strip, to Doomben due to problems with the track surface, cutting pedestrian traffic. Racing returned to Eagle Farm last month. BRC has also conducted extensive development work at the racecourse site, which included building another shopping centre, called Racecourse Village.

Cr McLachlan agreed that this street improvement project would likely herald a new era for the well-known Brisbane street.

Traders Bekk Tombs, Sarah Dargahi, Ingrid Steven, Maxwell Steven and Leanne Hedges were featured in an October edition of City North News, asking Brisbane City Council for an entrance sign off Kingsford Smith Drive. (AAP Image/Richard Walker)

“Racecourse Road has suffered a bit of a decline and there are several reason for that,” Cr McLachlan said. “There is the impact of the works on Kingsford Smith Drive, which we acknowledge, and there are other issues here as well. One of those is competition – people’s discretionary spend is tight and new shopping precincts that open up suck a bit of the life out of existing precincts.

“And to have the thing the street is named after not operating for three years, that has had an impact as well.

“I am confident that it will draw attention back to the street and say ‘we are open for business and we deserve attention so come and have a look’.”

The RRBG is currently working on plans for the lighting project, which will be released for public comment in coming months. They have just conducted a round of community consultation.

Mr Evans also secured grants that will go to shopping strips at Wilston and Paddington.

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