CBD the place to be again
THE revival of Townsville’s Flinders St is gathering pace, with the entire ground floor and basement of the Chifley Hotel leased for a piano bar, cafe restaurant and real estate agency.
The Basement Bar and a Fratello cafe restaurant, to be operated by separate players, are expected to open early next month, while Smith and Elliott Real Estate, which is relocating from Denham St, is due to open in September.
“The city is coming alive. I think it’s very positive for Flinders St,” Knight Frank leasing agent Renee Nicol said yesterday.
“The city has some great new businesses, and people are moving in from outside the city.
“I think the area has definitely turned around in the past six to 12 months.”
The City Lane dining precinct, also in Flinders St, was opened to much acclaim last month with its restaurants and bars attracting an instant following.
Where shops were once vacant and boarded up, tenancies are regularly full of people.
It will be a third and expanded version of Fratello, a venture by Alex Pasquali and James Withey, which operates cafes at Central and Stockland.
Mr Pasquali said they would operate a cafe restaurant seven days a week in the hotel’s ground floor tenancy fronting Flinders and Stanley streets.
“This will be more classy. It will have a real Melbourne cafe feel,” Mr Pasquali said.
Colliers agent Mark Leith said they had leased the basement area of the hotel, a former nightclub, to two local business operators.
It will be a piano bar providing food, beverage and live music for a mature clientele.
Mr Leith said they had been inundated with calls from business operators wanting space in the CBD, particularly since the opening of City Lane.
“Retail operators who have shied away from the CBD in the past are now wanting to come in,” Mr Leith said.
Smith and Elliott principal Sally Elliott said she was relocating because of an “amazing deal” but was more than happy to be located in a hotel.
“My dream job has been to work in a pub,” Ms Elliott said.
“Now I get to work in what was a former sportsman’s bar.”
About 170sq m of space fronting Stanley St which was previously used for a sportsman’s bar is being refurbished for the real estate agency.