Cielo supermarket, gym, rooftop pool and bar plan for Ashgrove gets green light
A developer transforming an up-market high street in Brisbane’s inner east has now got the green light for the biggest makeover seen in an affluent westside suburb in decades.
QLD News
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A developer which is transforming the main street of Bulimba is now pushing ahead with the biggest development seen in up-market Ashgrove in Brisbane’s west in decades.
Cielo Group has received the council green light for a four-level retail and “wellness’’ precinct including a full-line supermarket, cafes, takeaway food outlets and a gym with rooftop bar and pool.
The project is across the road from a similar four-level mega gym and Harris Farm-anchored retail precinct on the site of the existing Coles supermarket which stalled after its backer went into liquidation in 2023.
The former Midas Garage site, overlooking an Anzac memorial park, is also opposite a 7-11 where council last year approved plans for Ashgrove’s first McDonald’s restaurant.
Cielo, which began work earlier this year on its $190m Lua retail and lifestyle precinct on Bulimba’s ritzy Oxford St, planned to knock down the Ashgrove garage and two adjoining houses for the new 7000sqm project.
It was not known which supermarket would occupy the 1800 sqm ground-floor retail space.
There is already a Woolworths and an Aldi on nearby Harry St, as well as the Coles.
The project included 238 basement car parks over four levels, with access via Memorial Ave, leading to concerns from residents about gridlock on already-busy Stewart Rd near the Waterworks Rd intersection.
However Cielo’s planners argued that the existing vehicle access from Waterworks Rd would be removed, improving safety and easing traffic congestion there.
“The new development will result in revitalisation of the site and a significant improvement to the amenity and functionality of the streetscape, while providing nearby residents with access to goods and services,’’ Cielo’s planners Town Planning Alliance said in the development application (DA) documents.
“(It) will adopt a high quality architectural design that will make a positive contribution to the streetscape and surrounds.’’
They also said it would be “an important catalyst’’ in revitalising the precinct, which has been largely unchanged for at least two decades.
But the area has had more than its fair share of controversial projects in recent years.
That included demolition of a heritage-listed Uniting Church in nearby Devoy St, for a childcare centre and cafe, after it was removed from the heritage register last year.
Cielo changed the design, originally submitted in November last year, after concerns from council about parking, site access, servicing, landscaping and stormwater quality.
One public submission expressed fears about the impact on narrow laneways surrounding the project.
“Access, apart from the west, is only possible using the narrow local laneway system,’’ it said.
“These were originally intended as access for local residents with houses fronting main roads.
“The laneways were never designed to carry the volume of traffic that a major development of this scale would generate.
“Ajax Ln would be the major access point for a majority of traffic, both into and out of these laneways.
“With additional vehicles from the proposed development, this would make the intersection with Stewart Rd a potential choke point.
More details are available on council’s online DA portal developments. Search for 257 Waterworks Rd or application A006642297
Originally published as Cielo supermarket, gym, rooftop pool and bar plan for Ashgrove gets green light