New plans for site of Amigo’s inferno
Proposal for offices, restaurant on former Amigo’s site
DEVELOPERS have unveiled their new vision for the vacant block at 131 Margaret St, more than a year on from the fire that destroyed Amigo’s Bar and Grill and Adrenalin Climbing Gym. Sts, and house three office tenancies and a restaurant.
The building will be designed to blend with neighbouring heritage properties.
MORE than a year after a latenight inferno gutted Amigo’s Bar and Grill and the Adrenalin Climbing Gym, the owners of the now-vacant lot have put forward a new vision for the site.
D.S.P. Investments Pty Ltd has applied to Toowoomba Regional Council to re-develop 131 Margaret St, seeking approval to build a two-storey premises fronting both Margaret and Church Sts. The building will include three sets of offices and a new restaurant.
According to documents lodged with Toowoomba Regional Council, the building has been “purposefully designed to give the impression of lightweight construction... to encourage pedestrian connectivity between the two street frontages”.
“At the ground-floor level, the front tenancy will be used for office purposes and the covered walkways will provide pedestrian access to a food and drink outlet tenancy at the rear that will include a covered terraced dining area overlooking Queens Park to the north-east of the site,” the application states.
The upstairs level will include two office tenancies, and the building, when viewed from Margaret St will have a height of 7.3m. The height from Church St will be 10m.
“The scale of the development (two to three storeys) is limited by the extent of funding provided through insurance compensation as a result of the recent fire damage.”
A heritage impact statement and streetscape analysis commissioned by D.S.P Investments showed the proposed development was “sympathetic in design to the adjoining heritage buildings” and its “overall form within the streetscape, and architectural detailing” would be “compatible with the current and past historic fabric of this part of Margaret St”.
The building housing Amigo’s Bar and Grill and Adrenalin Climbing Gym burned to the ground on the night of June 13, 2017, in what witnesses described as a “wall of flame”.
It was later demolished and the site has sat empty since.