Toowoomba developers Barry and Mitchell Bernoth reveal vision for Bell Street mall after Ventia building revamp

A pair of the city’s most prominent developers have laid out their vision for one of the Toowoomba CBD’s most maligned streets, believing it could play a huge role within the city centre.

Two of Toowoomba’s most prominent developers believe the sometimes-maligned Bell Street Mall could be the “vibrant artery” of the city’s CBD, if both public and private investments were made.

Barry and Mitchell Bernoth laid out their vision for the pedestrian strip at Wednesday’s unveiling of their $1m revamp of the ground floor entrances to the Ventia building.

It is some of the most significant private investments into Bell Street in several years, with the space featuring a new coffee shop, public seating and garden beds.

Toowoomba Chamber CEO Todd Rohl (left), developer Mitchell and Barry Bernoth and NRG-One CEO Carl Duncan. Bernoth Properties hosted the Toowoomba Chamber's Business at Dusk event at the revamped ground floor of the Ventia building along the Bell Street Mall in the CBD.

Speaking at the Toowoomba Chamber’s Business at Dusk event, Mitchell said he believed the mall was ripe for revitalisation if pedestrians could be better connected to Queens Park.

He called on the Toowoomba Regional Council to consider how Bell Street could be used for greater purposes.

“I would like Bell Street to continue and connect to Queens Park more directly, (for council) to provide a thoroughfare through to there,” Mr Bernoth said.

“You would walk through Bell Street and I would like to see this as the vibrant artery connecting the CBD to Queens Park.”

Bernoth Properties hosted the Toowoomba Chamber's Business at Dusk event at the revamped ground floor of the Ventia building along the Bell Street Mall in the CBD.

His father Barry agreed, pointing out the team was prepared to do its part by building an 11-storey residential and parking tower along Bell Street.

“A start would be changing all the pavings, put a nice meandering path through here, have some more gardens and seating, some interesting lights and maybe if there’s enough room you could have markets and other shops,” he said.

“Very much so (the parking tower has a role to play) — it will be 35 units, so there’s more people and if they can come down the lift and meander down here.”

PLANNED: Barry Bernoth has planned an 11-storey residential and parking tower on Neil and Bell Sts in the Toowoomba CBD.

While the project has been put on the backburner for now due to rising construction costs, Barry said the pair planned to see it come to fruition in a few years.

“That project has been somewhat shelved a little bit,” he said.

“It’s still approved and something we’d want to do, but we went ahead with Mylne Street (an apartment block) earlier to act as a test case.

“It’s a difficult time with building costs and we want to see where interest rates end up.

“We’re waiting for a bit more stability.”

The ground floor revamp was coupled with a process to make the building up to 30 per cent more energy-efficient, which was all carried out by sustainable energy company NRG-One.

Company CEO Carl Duncan said commercial operators and businesses in Toowoomba could stand to make significant cost savings by adopting a more sustainable outlook.

“We partnered with the Bernoth property group to go and have a look under the hood — we collaborated together and understood their needs, and came up with a five-year plan that they can take and act on,” he said.

“It’s very rare that we can’t find some sort of opportunity.”