Brenner site offers stadium traffic lure

THE future tenant of Townsville’s old Max Brenner site on Flinders St will be able to leverage off punters heading to events at the North Queensland Stadium.

It has been almost 11 months since the Max Brenner outlet at Townsville Central shut in October, after the company’s administrators moved to shut 20 of its 37 stores nationwide.

The spot at the Honeycombes Property Group-managed retail centre has remained vacant since.

Managing director Peter Honeycombe said the company had come close to securing a retailer for the site but decided the business might have negatively impacted existing tenants.

“We are negotiating with a couple of other users at the moment, conscious that it’s quite a dominant location, so we need to get the right one and we want to get a right mix for the centre,” he said.

“And with the stadium connecting through there it’s going to be very busy.

“We want to have someone who can both take advantage of the people who will walk through the stadium from Central but also help create the right service for the people who go to the stadium.”

Mr Honeycombe said it was more than likely a food business would move in to the unit, which has frontage overlooking Flinders St.

He said it was important the new tenant would be open for lunch and dinner, and be a licensed venue.

“We’ve got in and around Central over 800 carparks so the nights or afternoons that the stadium’s use, (is) likely (to be) when there isn’t office use going on, so there will be ample carpark space,” he said.

The State Government has yet to release its plan for transport and parking options to and from the North Queensland Stadium, although it is understood the details are being finalised.