Gold Coast development: First look at Downtown restaurant, bar and live music venue

An old house will be transformed into a new three-storey restaurant and bar complex, with live music and dining areas on its roof and basement. SEE THE PLANS>>>>

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CIVIC leaders have welcomed plans to transform an old house into a new three-storey restaurant and bar complex.

Plans have been unveiled for Downtown, a high-end night-life venue which will house a bar, restaurant and live music performances from its basement cellar to its rooftop.

It is earmarked for a site on Southport’s Hicks Street opposite the Mal Burke carpark and will be one of the first new large-scale venues for the Gold Coast post-COVID-19.

Southport Chamber of Commerce president Ian Kennedy welcomed the proposal, saying it was “exactly what the suburb needs”.

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Artist impression of Downtown, a three-storey restaurant, bar and live music venue planned for Hicks Street, Southport.

“This is a great proposal for this location, particularly in concert with the plans from council to develop the “towers of power” across the road (on the Mal Burke site),” he said.

“It is the kind of idea which will activate the space and such a metropolitan usage of the site will be great for the CBD workers as well as the residents of Southport.”

The project has been put forward by Mike Read who this week filed a development application with council.

Ian Kennedy (left). Picture: Andrew Meadowcroft.

The site is currently occupied by a mid-century house which most recently serve as the base for Cornerstone, a St Vincent de Paul Society homeless support service.

It would be demolished to make way for the new building.

A planning report said Downtown had been designed to fill a void in Southport.

“The intended design and atmosphere will mimic that of street vendors and food trucks on the ground floor with other formalised dining spaces in the basement,” the report reads.

“The addition of live music will attract, support, and showcase local musicians and artists while the flexible nature of the space for dining and entertainment will cater to a range of needs and different forms of entertainment as the Southport CBD continues to develop.

Mal Burke Carpark is across the road from the building.

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“The proposed development is designed to attract the existing workforce and Southport residents who work and live in proximity to the site.”

But the planning report notes the project will have no off-street carparking, pointing to its location next to one of the city’s biggest public carparks and being a short walk from the light rail.

Business and political lead-ers have been pushing for Southport’s priority develop-ment area status to be reviewed in an bid to revamp a suburb littered with homeless people and lease signs.

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