POPULATE OR PERISH

Experts predict our CBD’s future comes down to just one thing ...

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.

Planz Town Planning managing director Nikki Huddy believes Cairns will soon face the challenge of finding the right developments to build a human critical mass to sustain a thriving CBD.

“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,” she said.

An influx of residents could allow the precinct to grow.

“I think there’s a real trend towards families wanting to live in the city,” she said.

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.

She predicted one of the biggest issues facing developers would be balancing a new building’s immediate bang-forbuck potential with longerterm 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.

“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.”