Boggo Road Reopening Saga V: A New Hope

After months of waiting, the Boggo Road Reopening Saga entered a new phase last week with the announcement that Leighton Properties have signed a project deed with the Queensland Government for a $275million development of parts of the Boggo Road Urban Village (BRUV), including the old gaol itself. 

Before we light any fireworks, I should point out that no concrete plans have yet been made, especially regarding the gaol, and now is just the start of a consultation period for coming up with a plan for the gaol. This will take nine months, and the resulting plan will then require approval from the Queensland Heritage Council and the Brisbane City Council. Renovations and repairs to the gaol will take place when/if approval is granted. A 2013 reopening still looks like the most likely scenario.

Yesterday afternoon I had an introductory meeting with Public Works officials and representatives from Leighton to discuss what happens next, and what shape the overall development will take. Overall plans for the BRUV include:

• There will be residential and retail buildings near the gaol.
• Boggo Road gaol will be a ‘centrepiece’ of the Boggo Road Urban Village and used to attract visitors to the area.
• The state government will still own the site, and in the long term will be looking for a level of financial self-sufficiency from the gaol.
• A retail strip is planned for between the gaol and the Ecoscience building.

Proposed retail strip between the
Ecoscience Building and Boggo Road Gaol.

In terms of the gaol itself (and once again emphasising that no concrete plans have been made) the following (among other things) came up in discussion:

• Some areas inside the prison will be reused/readapted for commercial purposes. The extent of how much, and what form it will take, will be one of the outcomes of the upcoming consultation. 
• Developers are looking at ‘commercial’ reuse of at least one of the cellblocks.
• Developers emphasised that school visits and education will be a priority.
• They are also looking at on-site storage and display of artefacts
• The next few months will be a ‘data collection phase’ which will include research of the history, discussion of possible use options, and Tanner Architects will do a physical audit of the buildings

One thing that the Boggo Road Gaol Historical Society will be insisting upon is that the consultation process is honest. A successful outcome is dependant upon factual input, and we will be very proactive about exposing any second-hand-car-salesman routines and pie-in-the-sky lies from the private sector. We have locked and loaded all the facts we need, and I left the meeting happily assured that the senior public servants and professionals responsible for a $275million project already have their bullshit detectors well and truly switched on, as you would expect.   

There will be several further meetings between the BRGHS and Leighton Properties, and we will be pushing to make sure the final plan incorporates our own ideas. Until then, there is much work to be done.