Sunshine Coast Business and Technology Precinct

A historic partnership between local government, the University and three major Sunshine Coast property developers will spearhead the marketing of a new Business and Technology Precinct to drive economic growth and generate sustainable and high value employment opportunities in the Sippy Downs and Palmview area. Look at an aerial view of the precinct [PDF 103KB].

The parties involved, the Sunshine Coast Council, the University of the Sunshine Coast, Aria Property (representing a joint venture between Aria Property, Bloomberg Incorporated and Rosedene), Investa Property Group and S&L Developments, have  formally confirmed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to mark the formalisation of the Sunshine Coast Business and Technology Precinct Marketing Group.  The Marketing Group aims to facilitate the creation of a strategic marketing plan to promote the area, nationally and internationally, as a premier Australian Business and Technology Precinct, to thereby attract high calibre businesses to the Sunshine Coast and generate high value employment opportunities outside the traditional historic areas of employment.

From L to R – Michael Arnett (Chairman), Greg Laverty (SCRC), Prof Paul Thomas (VC, USC), Michael Hopkins (Investa), Scott Juniper (S&L Developments)

Benefits of the precinct

The development of a business and technology precinct located immediately adjacent to the University of the Sunshine Coast is expected to benefit the region across four key areas: 

Knowledge economy driver - Corporations can work directly with and leverage off the Universities research and development programs, in addition to providing a unique location for high technology business which are created through the regions Innovation Centre and Business Accelerator. The park is considered important hard infrastructure in the development of the regions knowledge based economy.

High value employment  opportunities - The precinct will provide a location for new and the development of, existing and emerging technology based business with the intention of creating technologically focused and therefore higher value professions than what is currently available in significant numbers across the region. The continual creation of valuable job opportunities locally, is one of the best ways to address both the loss of skilled young people from the region and the continual rise in the cost of living faced by all residents.

Maintaining the regions attributes - The region needs to create employment opportunities for both its residents and for the large numbers of people expected to move to this region in the future. This precinct looks to create substantial employment opportunities in a concentrated area. This provides one of the best solutions to driving economic public transport solutions and reducing the need to develop new employment estates on new sites. Both these issues contribute significantly to maintaining the liveability of the region through reduced environmental impacts and protection of visual amenity.

Diversifying the economy - This precinct will seek to assist in the attraction and growth of companies outside the regions traditional industries sectors of tourism, retail and construction. This will help to diversify the local economy and provide both varied career choices for the regions youth and a way of lowering the volatility of what has been traditionally a demand driven economy.