CBD’s campus kickstart
A DORMANT mega-development could be spurred back to life after a $50m bipartisan promise to build a new university campus on its doorstep.
The Coalition and Labor have both now committed to the new CQUniversity campus in the Cairns CBD, guaranteeing it will be funded no matter where the chips fall on May 21.
Its location on a former post office site at the corner of Hartley and Grafton streets is expected to trigger plenty of
new development in the surrounding area.
Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch suggested the seventower $550m apartment project Nova City – put on the backburner late last year – may have a renaissance.
“You are going to see student accommodation, apartments going up all around this campus,” he said. “And stalled projects, I suspect this is going to be a catalyst to start again.
“We look at the Nova project … that is now going to be a catalyst.
“We’re going to have 4000 students; many of those are going to be international students attracted to this area.”
Singaporean development company World Class Global wrote to pre-sale buyers in October to say its new apartments would not be built.
“After much careful deliberation, we must painfully acknowledge that our original vision is no longer feasible at this current point in time,” it said.
That open-ended conclusion has buoyed hopes the project may simply be in hibernation, rather than the late stages of post-mortem decomposition.
The company still owns the 2.4ha Spence St property it bought for about $18m, as well as an $8.05m neighbouring block, and has not put either on the open market.
CQU’s big move also means it will vacate its current home at the corner of Abbott and Spence streets, as well as two other leased buildings in Cairns. The Abbott St building owner is reportedly already looking at options for the site – although the shift is not expected until June 2025.
CQU chancellor John Abbott
did not know what kind of operation would move in.
“The owner of this building lives in Townsville,” he said.
“There were tenants in here before us and I’m presuming there will be tenants here after us.”
A final design and business case is expected to be ready for government approval within six months.
“That happening, construction will start pretty much straight away – design is already under way,” Mr Abbott said.