Grand Central Shopping Centre $120M expansion approved by council

Toowoomba Regional Council has approved a $120 million expansion of the Grand Central Shopping Centre that will add 15,000 square metres of additional retail floor space, a new eight-screen cinema complex, 1,200 additional car parks, and a dining precinct fronting Ruthven Street that is designed to re-establish the connection between the shopping centre and the CBD streetscape that was weakened by the original centre's inward-facing design.

The expansion is the largest private sector investment in Toowoomba's commercial property market in the past decade and reflects the confidence of the centre's owners — Vicinity Centres — in the growth of Toowoomba's retail catchment as the Inland Rail employment, population growth from lifestyle migration, and the sustained agricultural sector income that flows through the Darling Downs economy continue to strengthen consumer spending capacity in the region.

The dining precinct fronting Ruthven Street is the element of the expansion most welcomed by CBD stakeholders, who have argued that the original Grand Central's enclosed mall format absorbed retail traffic without contributing to the pedestrian activation that makes the surrounding street-level retail environment viable. The new dining precinct's ground floor activation will create the street-level foot traffic that adjacent retailers have been seeking.

Construction is expected to commence in early 2027, with a staged completion schedule that will deliver the cinema complex first — in the second half of 2028 — before the retail expansion and car park additions complete in 2029.

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