12:00a.m. 17th May 2008

| By Kathy Sundstrom

The Reed Property Group has scrapped its $600 million plans for the redevelopment of Maroochydore’s Big Top shopping centre into three 20-storey towers.

Changes in the political will of former councillors towards high-rise and the loss of anchor tenant David Jones to Sunshine Plaza last week caused the company to change its plans for the 3.5ha CBD site.

Managing director Ken Reed was optimistic that within 60 days a new vision would be prepared for the site, to be submitted to the council before the end of the year.

He said it would be one which would “comply with the provisions under Maroochy Plan 2000”.

Reed unveiled its elaborate and detailed plans to redevelop the Big Top Shopping Centre into Metro in October 2004, and announced it would begin demolition of the old tent structure by February 1, 2005.

First it had to obtain approval from the former Maroochy Council to amend the town plan, which allowed for only residential development up to 37.5 metres – or about 12 storeys – on that site.

Mr Reed said the company had been optimistic this would occur, with “everyone quite excited at the time” and the 20-storey vision similar in height to apartment block Northcliff across the road.

“Council officers spoke about the process we would need to go through to gain acceptance of the application,” Mr Reed said

This involved amendment of the planning scheme to incorporate the new height.

“But before the council would consider it, they wanted to look at the CBD as a whole and the CBD taskforce was engaged. Each step took months and months, but we remained consistent with our (planned) design outcome on the site.

“The taskforce then decided a structure plan for the CBD was needed and this also took months to produce.

“About this time we became involved in discussions with David Jones and so we developed a second concept for the site, which incorporated a centre based around the location of David Jones on the property.

“We had been involved in discussions with David Jones for 18 months and this was very slow in the first instance. But we were largely responsible for getting them excited about Maroochydore as a location.

“It came down to two properties they were considering and the (DJs) board chose to locate on the Plaza site.

“We’re disappointed we didn’t win them as anchor tenant for the site, but we’re excited they’re establishing themselves in Maroochydore nonetheless. If it was not on our site, across the road is the perfect location.”

But Reed “lost momentum” as a result of the long negotiations with David Jones and would now have to consider other options on the site, Mr Reed said.

“We’ve owned it for about five years and in that time the market has changed considerably,” he said.

“We’re still keen to advance an application on that site in the near future but are now considering a mixed-use site with a smaller retail offering.”

Reed had no plans to sell the site and had kept existing tenants abreast of developments.

“It’s a great location,” he said.

“Our current position on property is we will consider options which comply with the town plan (37.5m for residential or 40m for commercial).”

Mr Reed admitted it had been a frustrating process.

“Apart from internally wanting to get on with it, our tenants are eagerly awaiting (the redevelopment),” he said.

“We informed them of the pitch to David Jones and we were awaiting the outcome, but that is now lost. It (the Big Top) is a lovely site near the river – it’s just a pity it is a bit of an eyesore.”

Sunshine Coast mayor Bob Abbot welcomed the news Reed would stick to the town plan.

“I’m certainly happy (Reed) decided to work within the town plan and they will get good service with that hopefully,” he said.

Mr Abbot said Reed had obviously “read the community interest” on high-rises.

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