NEWS
Fortitude Valley’s main mall will be redeveloped at a cost of many millions of dollars – but not before all stakeholders are given the chance to have their say in how the new mall should look.
That’s the undertaking from Phillip Di Bella, chairman of the Valley Malls Advisory Committee. Mr Di Bella gave the assurance that local traders, members of the public and anyone else with an interest in the area would all be consulted when he addressed a recent breakfast meeting run by the Fortitude Valley Chamber of Commerce at Fat Boys and Ric’s in the mall.
Mr Di Bella (pictured below) said the committee was determined that mistakes that had plagued similar redevelopments in the past would not happen over the Valley mall. To this end, up to $500,000 would be provided to VMAC to ensure “a proper survey is undertaken before any major work begins”.
The recently opened $8 million plus makeover of the nearby Chinatown Mall was plagued by delays that added six months to its construction timetable. Council said all available blueprints and plans failed to identify inadequate and decayed underground infrastructure when the mall remake got under way. Major delays were caused as utilities infrastructure was upgraded to satisfy Energex in particular.
Mr Di Bella said the Valley Mall revamp would cost more than the $8million plus spent on the Chinatown Mall and that it “needed input from as many people as possible. “We have been given a commitment from the Lord Mayor that the public has input into what they would like to see in the Valley mall makeover.
“If people want to see change, be part of that change.” Mr Di Bella said one of his key tasks was to link all players in the process – the council, the public and various committees.
“All organisations are pushing to make sure the Valley mall gets the attention the City has had.”
Mr Di Bella, who is also chairman of the Queen Street Mall Advisory Committee, said he expected the Valley mall would “adapt some of the ideas of the Queen Street mall but with its own flavour”.
A frank and upfront Mr Di Bella told the breakfast gathering that he accepted Fortitude Valley was a “hard task”. He had “inherited” zero dollars when he came onto the VMAC last year, and understood why some local business people had long faces over the Valley’s image. But he urged traders to “get rid of those long faces” and be a positive part of the move forward.
“They have not had the tools to move forward. We have now been given plenty of tools to move the Valley forward over the next three to four years.” Mr Di Bella said he also expected the VMAC to “ruffle a few business feathers” by making sure that in the interim, the mall had a total facelift with traders being asked to ensure all outdoor furniture, planter boxes were clean and presentable.
He said VMAC would adopt a “broken glass” approach –“if something is broken, we’ll get it fixed straight away. The committee’s area would cover from St Pauls Terrace, including the troubled Brunswick Street West area, the mall proper and well beyond that towards New Farm.
