Work begins on new $43m Brisbane music venue complex

Work has begun on the interior development of the new $43 million music venue complex in Brisbane’s entertainment precinct Fortitude Valley first announced three months ago.

The 312 Brunswick Street site, inside Brunswick Street Mall, is in the same precinct as other major venues as Black Bear Lodge, Ric’s, The Zoo and The Bowery.

The 2500-square-metre complex will include 1000 square metres of retail and food-and-beverage outlets and is expected to start showcasing bands by mid-2019.

The consortium behind the complex includes live music supporter Scott Hutchinson of Hutchinson Builders, former Powderfinger bassist John “JC” Collins who runs The Triffid, and Secret Sounds Group co-owner and Splendour In The Grass and Falls co-promoter Paul Piticco.

The three already own The Triffid, and have proved how a music venue can flourish if run for the right reasons.

“The (Brunswick Street) building was originally an old Coles (in 1957) and it runs from the Brunswick Street Mall through to Warner Street,” Hutchinson updated the Brisbane Times.

“We’re staying within the (building) envelope of what we’ve got at the moment, but gutting a lot of it out because it used to be an office building.”

The building’s external will retain its 1950s look.

But the final internal design is not finalised: Hutchinson and Collins head off overseas shortly to check out venues.

The importance of the new venue, still unnamed, is that its mid-size 3,500-capacity will fill the vacuum between the clubs like the Triffid and Tivoli (of between 800 and 1400) and arenas as the Brisbane Entertainment Centre (14,500) and Suncorp Stadium’s 52,500.

Hutchinson has always maintained that the idea of the venue was to fill the hole left by the indoor Festival Hall, which had 4000 seats, and which closed in August 2003 to be turned into the Festival Towers apartment block.

Hutchinson stressed to the Brisbane Times that a venue was a sheer necessity for the city’s live scene.

“Someone has got to do it. Brisbane’s music scene could fall off the perch if someone doesn’t do this.

“This venue fills a yawning gap, a real yawning gap.

“The tenants have plans to activate the Valley during the day as well, so this will lift the whole Valley.

“The Valley is just so important to Brisbane. It is unique in Australia because of its concentration of music venues.”