Cairns CBD development: Population density, Nova City and finding balance
Economics, appetite and aeroplanes must all be overcome before Cairns can create the inner-city population density required for a flourishing CBD in a post-coronavirus world. HAVE YOUR SAY
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ECONOMICS, appetite and aeroplanes must all be overcome before Cairns can create the inner-city population density required for a flourishing CBD in a post-coronavirus world.
The density dilemma is one that has played on minds since the vertical climb started during the Japanese tourism boom years through to the slumping retail environment of today.
Planz Town Planning managing director Nikki Huddy has spent a lot of time thinking about the issue and believes concerns about increasing population density due to potential COVID-19 implications were a “non-issue of the highest order”.
“If we get up in the same arguments saying density and public transport are a sin, we will end up living in an urban sprawl out to Aloomba,” she said.
“In pretty much any city in Australia – it doesn’t matter if you’re in Melbourne, Mackay or Cairns – we’ve got a density of about 500 persons per square kilometre.
“By comparison, New York – and that includes Manhattan and New York City – has about 26,000 people per square kilometre, and LA has about 3000.”
The issue then becomes finding the right developments to build a human critical mass to sustain a thriving CBD.
The current global health crisis may have further stalled projects like the Nova City apartment towers complex.
However, Ms Huddy said it was only a matter of time and money before major inner-city developments like Nova rose from the earth.
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She predicted one of the biggest issues facing developers would be balancing a new building’s immediate bang-for-buck potential with longer-term adaptability.
There would likely be a market out there if – purely for argument’s sake – Crystalbrook Collection owner Ghassan Aboud wanted to sell one of his hotel towers for residential living due to the tourism shutdown.
The Australian building code would not allow the move, as the ceilings might be high enough for a hotel, but they would be too low for residential reuse.
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“People have to cram them in because it’s under the flight path,” Ms Huddy said.
“You can’t afford to build these things unless you’ve got the yield.
“But the honest truth is that if we want to put people in the city, we need to build buildings that can be adaptive over time and go from tourist to residential.”
That might mean lower immediate yield to create a better product – a hard idea to sell to a developer, but one Ms Huddy believes needs to gain traction.
“I think there’s a real trend towards families wanting to live in the city,” she said.
“We are prepared to give up our backyards, trampolines and sheds to play in because the city is such a fun and vibrant place to live.”
CBRE Cairns managing director Danny Betros said there was demand for CBD property but very few options for buyers.
“At the moment, you couldn’t buy a brand new unit even if you wanted to,” he said.
“Nova was going to take up a bit of that slack but it seems to have stalled a bit with COVID-19, which is completely understandable.
“I do still believe some of these projects will be successful.”
Mr Betros said residential conversions of old vacant commercial spaces were possible in some cases but the costs generally made such ventures unfeasible.
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“A lot of buildings just don’t comply with what is required,” he said.
“They don’t have natural light or any ability to open a window or even develop boundaries.
“It just gets back to the individual site.
“Most of these conversion projects in the capital cities have been in major warehousing in fringe areas.
“They’re big, big structures that are able to provide balconies and cut-outs to get natural light and airflow through.
“I couldn’t identify any building in the city at the moment that you could convert to residential.”
For now, it remains a waiting game.
“We have a long way to go before we get back the numbers into the city, tourist-wise,” Mr Betros warned.
“We’re not going to see much change in the next 12 to 18 months
“Office vacancies haven’t changed, they are still quite tight, but retail will change.
“Unfortunately a lot of retailers and restaurants wont’ make it.
“Some will close and some will get replaced by others in the next 12 months.”
Originally published as Cairns CBD development: Population density, Nova City and finding balance