Gate Closed on Sunshine Coast Farm Tourism Project

Ambitious plans to convert former farmland into a paddock-to-plate agri-tourism attraction showcasing the “best of everything” in local produce and cuisine on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast has come to nothing.

The seed was sown for the proposed Barns Lane Farm development at Coolum Beach three years ago and it was given the green light by the Sunshine Coast Council in May, 2022.

But the trio behind what was to be a destination celebrating the region’s food and healthy living has closed the gate on the project and put the 6.8ha site on the block.

“Having acquired the Coolum site in 2021 and sharing its vision for the site’s potential, the developer’s long list of other south-east Queensland projects means that a decision has been made to seek a new owner for the Coolum land parcel,” a statement from the Barns Lane developers said.

The development was the brain-child of Into Property’s Jason Grant and Helen Grant as well as Churchill Development Group’s Jonathan Leishman.

It was touted as a similar concept to the highly successful The Farm near Byron Bay.

Under the approved plans, Barns Lane Farm was to include a 2000sq m produce hall, dining precinct, workshop and event/performance spaces, an ag-tech incubator, family-friendly farm experiences as well as an onsite restaurant, brewery, distillery, bakery, coffee roaster, florist, butcher, gelateria and deli.

“We’re very passionate about community, food and healthy living, and we’re looking forward to getting cracking on the site,” Leishman said after the plans were unveiled.

“Once we’re up and running there’s going to be between 50 and 60 businesses on site … we want to help cultivate careers and offer long-term employment opportunities.”

Overall, it was expected the project would have created 170 full-time equivalent jobs across multiple industries.

In August last year, preliminary works started on the site but its proponents conceded they were facing challenges with rising costs of construction and finance forcing them to redesign the project.

“These two factors created the need for the Barns Lane team to dig deep as we faced substantial challenges with getting a start on site,” they said in a statement.

“We took a hard look at what needed to change in the base design and what could be delivered as a future stage. That has meant we have had to go back to the drawing board.”

As part of the redesign, basements were removed from four buildings and staging of the development across the site changed with elements such as viewing platforms, an artist silo and event space to be delivered after the initial opening.

Nevertheless, Jason Grant remained optimistic.

“Everything is heading in a very positive direction and we look forward to opening towards the end of [2024],” he said.

Almost seven months later, JLL’s Liam Petersen and Jake Burrowes have been appointed to manage an expressions-of-interest campaign for the sale of the site with its existing approval in place.

Located next to the Sunshine Motorway, it is described as “one of the last remaining development sites of scale on the Sunshine Coast”. The campaign closes on March 27.