Irvine Lodges the Masterplan to Bring Toombul Back as a Flood-Resilient Town Centre

The first plans to bring Toombul back have been lodged. Irvine Property Group, which bought the flood-wrecked former Toombul Shopping Centre from Mirvac late last year, has applied to Brisbane City Council for a masterplan approval and earthworks permit covering the whole 9.9 hectare site at 1015 Sandgate Road, Nundah, setting out a retail-led, mixed-use town centre built around a new shopping centre, homes, plazas and parkland along Kedron Brook.

The centre opened in 1967 and grew into one of the north side’s biggest shopping destinations, approved for almost 64,000 square metres of floor space and close to 1,800 car parks, before the February 2022 flood forced it to close for good. It has since been demolished, leaving only the Toombul bus interchange operating on a largely empty site. The application, received by Council on 1 October 2026 and prepared by Urbis with a masterplan by Buchan, is the first formal step towards rebuilding it.

The masterplan describes the aim plainly: not to rebuild the old enclosed mall, but to turn Toombul into a town centre where people can live, shop, eat and spend time outdoors.

Toombul will transform from a former shopping centre into a new piece of Brisbane, shaped by its relationship with Kedron Brook, its transport crossroads and generations of northside life. A rich mix of retail, living, work and leisure will come together around streets and open spaces.

Toombul Redevelopment Master Plan, Irvine, Urbis and Buchan

At the heart of the plan is a central retail core, the new shopping centre that Irvine has said is its first priority, set on a raised platform beside the retained bus interchange. Around it the masterplan places residential and mixed-use development sites, an urban common and plazas, and a network of shaded streets and timber canopies, with an upper and a lower parkland stepping down to Kedron Brook. The range of uses sought is broad: shops, dining, a bar and a hotel, markets, apartments, retirement and residential care, a showroom, a garden centre and a service station among them.

This is a preliminary approval, so it works like a structure plan. It fixes where development, open space, streets and access will go, and the levels the land will be built up to, but it does not approve any buildings, heights or apartment numbers. Each stage, starting with the shopping centre, will need its own application, giving the community another say as the detail emerges.

The masterplan: a central retail core, surrounding development sites, the urban common and the upper and lower parklands along Kedron Brook. Drawing by Buchan and Urbis.

The Key Elements Plan proposed as the approved document: development platforms, levels, access points, parklands and the retained bus interchange. Drawing by Buchan and Urbis.

Movement plan: access from five streets, internal north-south circulation and pedestrian and cycle links to the station, the bus interchange and Kedron Brook. Drawing by Buchan and Urbis.

The cleared 9.9 hectare site today, between Sandgate Road and Kedron Brook. Aerial from the Urbis planning report.

Flooding is the reason the plan looks the way it does. The earthworks permit sought alongside the masterplan would reshape the site so that future buildings, streets and parking sit on a development platform at or above RL 6.5 metres AHD, which the flood modelling by Water Technology says would stay dry in a 1 in 2,000 year flood. To make room for water, the southern part of the site becomes parkland: an upper park that people can use day to day and that fills as offline flood storage in bigger floods, and a lower park beside the brook that keeps the floodplain working. The report says the works add about 7,000 cubic metres of flood storage in a 1 in 100 year event without worsening flooding for neighbours.

The proposed approach differs fundamentally from the former shopping centre by integrating flood resilience, flood storage, public safety and open space into the site structure from the outset.

Urbis, Town Planning Report

Getting around is built on what is already there. The bus interchange stays where it is, with new links to Toombul railway station, the surrounding streets and the Kedron Brook bikeway. Cars would come in from Sandgate Road, Grace Street, Kreutzer Street, Masefield Street and Widdop Street, spreading traffic across several entries, with no road through the site from east to west. The parklands would stay privately owned and maintained, but be open to the public once the centre is operating.

The site has been through several ideas since the flood, including PRAX Studio’s 2022 concept for the site, and Mirvac shared its own draft masterplan before deciding to sell. Irvine bought the land in November 2025 for a price reported at under $100 million, saying it would build on Mirvac’s draft plan.

We are excited about our acquisition of the former Toombul Shopping Centre site and believe we are in a unique position to deliver what the community needs.

Michael Irvine, Managing Director, Irvine Group, November 2025

Project Rundown

Irvine Property Group is a Brisbane-based, family-owned developer founded by Balfour and Nicola Irvine, with more than 30 years of mixed-use, residential, retail and industrial projects across south-east Queensland.

It is best known for urban renewal in Teneriffe, Newstead, Bulimba and Morningside, including the revival of historic woolstores, and has developed apartments in Bulimba in partnership with Mirvac. Managing director Michael Irvine now leads the group, and Toombul is its largest project to date.

Plans

Renders and plans by Buchan and Urbis from the Toombul Redevelopment Master Plan, lodged with development application A007124980; renders are artist illustrations only and subject to change.