A proposed truck stop on the Warrego Highway at Helidon Spa in Queensland is still on the market, five years after a development application was approved.
Back in 2019, Lockyer Valley Regional Council gave the go-ahead for a $2.3m service centre with three food drive-through facilities and an indoor restaurant.
The plans also include a large truck parking area and a grassy seating area.
Unfortunately, the development approval has now lapsed, and there hasn’t been any serious interest from a buyer in months.
The real estate agent in charge of the listing, Paul Schmidt-Lee from Ray White Commercial Toowoomba, told Big Rigs: “We’ve been pushing left, right and centre to the larger players in regards to service stations, but nothing has come of it yet.
“You never know though, you can never predict what will happen tomorrow.”
The plan includes three food drive-throughs and an indoor restaurant.The original developer is said to have pulled out of the project before construction could begin, and Schmidt-Lee said there was some interest when it initially went on the market.
“The was a little bit of interest but when Covid came along, it went quiet,” he said.
“Then it came back, there was some enquiry on it.
“Moving forward, I think it will be interesting to see what happens come the latter part of the year.”
Whoever takes up the project will have to reapply for development approval, which Schmidt-Lee says could take between six and 12 months.
“What they’ll normally do is put a contract down subject to [approval] and then they’ll go away and do their due diligence.
“It normally takes between six and 12 months but that all depends on what they are trying to do, the relationship with the council and all those type of things that can play out.”
In the years since the Helidon Spa development was approved, several competitor outlets have sprung up in the Lockyer Valley region, including the Mobil service station at Plainland.
However, Schmidt-Lee said that the site is still in a prime spot along the Warrego Highway.
“The overall interest in that property is the size and location,” he said.
“There isn’t anything between the likes of Gatton and Toowoomba that would accommodate that size of development.”
The full listing can be found here.
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