State Development Corporation and White & Partners lodged a development application this week with the Brisbane City Council to build the Toowong Town Centre on the corner of High Street and Sherwood Road.

State Development Corporation’s managing director Ross McKinnon said more than 50 per cent of the site will be public space and will include open-air plazas and community meeting areas.
The retail component can be accessed directly from High Street, Sherwood Road and Jephson Street, providing easy street-level entry to the property.

McKinnon said the project would not be competing against Toowong Village but instead would provide a different offer. It will include a mixed-use precinct providing retail, commercial, residential, entertainment, and leisure facilities along with a range of services like childcare, gym and medical centre across the 9,000m2 site. .

The development design will encourage pedestrians to use the internal plazas and walkways as access, linking Sherwood Road and High Street to Jephson Street, Toowong train station and the bus stop.
The mixed-use development will offer customers a 24/7 lifestyle where they can live, work and play in the one area.

McKinnon said State Development Corporation had spent five years for the chance to buy the site from Stockland.
“We have developed four projects in the western corridor and understand the Toowong area very well,” McKinnon said.
The site was one of the first Woolworths supermarkets in Queensland, opening in 1956. Most of the 150m frontage to High Street has been a blank concrete wall for more than 60 years.

“We now have the chance to create a whole new image for High Street and Sherwood Road,” he said.
The design of the project is based on an outdoor shopping centre in Los Angeles.

“Now more than ever, Toowong needs a heart — a civic plaza to give the suburb a focal point the neighbourhood and community can identify with,” McKinnon said.
The open-air plaza will include a water feature that converts to a stage area. The plaza will be used for outdoor dining and food festivals, small concerts, community and special events. The plaza also allows continued easy access to the train station, bus stops and Toowong Village.
“We see the plaza as being an ever-changing meeting area — an iconic location that changes from day to night, week to week, and season to season,” Mr McKinnon said.

An upgrade to the High Street and Sherwood Road intersection is also proposed to improve traffic flow.