Mansfield Tavern site to be redeveloped into ‘market’ village

PLANS to redevelop a longstanding suburban Brisbane tavern are expected to be lodged with council within weeks, with the ambitious plans hoped to transform the site into a sophisticated shopping and dining hub to rival the Valley’s James St.

The Mansfield Tavern as it currently looks.

PLANS to redevelop a longstanding tavern in Brisbane’s south are expected to be lodged with Brisbane City Council within a few weeks.

The market-style retail, food, fashion and dining precinct is expected to “transform” the 2.08ha Mansfield Tavern site into a community hub with “sophistication”.

It will have a similar feel of Fortitude Valley’s James Street and the Gold Coast’s Ferry Rd Market in Southport.

An artist's impression of the Mansfield Tavern plans. A development application will be lodged with Brisbane City Council in the coming weeks. Picture: Cottee Parker Architects

The same architects who worked on the James Street masterplan have drawn up the plans for the Mansfield Tavern site.

Cottee Parker Architects director Martin Timms told the Southern Star the redevelopment would happen in stages with the first including building a new “reduced size” tavern.

Stages two and three would be built as the spaces are leases to businesses which will likely range from eateries and boutique retailers to a gym.

Mr Timms said the development would not be “a large-scale centre” and would transform an “under-utilised community space”, into “the retail hub of Mansfield”.

He said there was a “gap in the market”.

The entrance to Ferry Rd Market in Southport. It’s hoped the Mansfield refurbishment will have a similar feel to the Southport site.

“There’s probably a real need in this area,” he said.

“(We will) still maintain the tavern space but introduce a lot of landscaped retailing and a lot of other opportunities for businesses in the area to either join the area or move from current premises into those spaces, it’s about restaurants and outdoor dining, and fine grained opportunities for smaller retailers or slightly larger ones trying to create a market atmosphere within the project as well.

“It is quite low-scale so we’ve deliberately considered the local context and if you look at the streetscape treatments we are trying to break the form of the building down to being almost residential in its form, and scale, rather than being a large industrial building having that fine grain (and) strong landscaping elements which we’ve worked with a landscape architect to really try to create pockets where restaurateurs can start to break out and use those spaces as well. It’s sort of a flexible retailing environment.”

The vehicle drive-in entrance to the Ferry Rd Market on the Gold Coast. The Mansfield project is hoped to be up there with the Ferry Rd site and the Valley’s James St.

There’s been a full traffic study done of both the current and proposed developments and the different loadings the road will experience up to 2030.

“The report will outline a lot more detail on the numbers and how people arrived at the solutions,” Mr Timms said.

Cottee Parker’s Martin Timms.

The new tavern, which will have a more contemporary feel and outdoors focus, will face Wecker Rd. There will also be a new bottle shop.

“Rather than it being a really enclosed and internalised space, (it will have) a nice balcony which faces out towards the road,” Mr Timms said.

“Obviously we’ve been mindful that there are local residents, so we’ve tried to bring the tavern forward, for a couple of good reasons — one, better exposure and secondly, the noise interacting with a reasonably busy road, than currently where it sits, which is in the centre of the site.”

He said facing north would also give the tavern a much better aspect through winter.

“It’s an exciting project … which I think will roll out slowly over a number of years rather than being all on one day,” Mr Timms said.

Mr Timms said they had designed the new space to try and retain as many of the large trees on the site as they possibly could.

“ … We had some interaction with the council through the design process and they consider that a very important part of the project, so we’ve taken that on board and tried to keep the larger trees where it is practical and possible — which is pretty much on the southern boundary, he said.

“It’s a nice feature of the site and we were quite supportive of that idea as well.”

Mr Timms said the amount of parking on the site would “ultimately depend on the final mix” but the current plan was about 500.

He said a basement carpark would “hide most of the cars”, but there would be some on-ground parking.

The Wecker Rd land and building was sold in February 2017 for $12.25 million and is owned by a Sydney-based private hotelier.

Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner told the Southern Star the developer would be lodging a Development Application in “a matter of weeks”.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk (right) and Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner. Photo: Mark Cranitch.

“It’s very much a James Street-feel about it,” Cr Schrinner said.

“I’ve seen some of the drawing that they’ve done and it looks really impressive.

“(I am) very happy, it will be great for the area.”

Cr Schrinner said it could take months to assess the application and the community would be able to provide feedback on the proposed development.

“It will be an impact assessable DA, which means the public can provide submissions and people can either put in submissions in favour or against it,” he said.

Cr Schrinner said while the tavern had been there for a long time, “for some strange reason” the land was zoned as residential.

“So, they’d be seeking to formalise the business use of the site, but I don’t think that would be a major provide considering it’s been used as a business for a long time,” he said.