In 2022-23, Council started providing hands-on support to assist the Racecourse Road retail precinct.
The project was completed in October 2023, however Council is providing ongoing support to local businesses to raise the profile of this iconic precinct.
Design Markets
As part of ongoing support to the Racecourse Road precinct, Council has sponsored The What We Make Design Market to deliver a series of four pop-up markets at the St Augustine’s Parish Hall in the heart of the precinct.
- Sunday, 25 August 2024 – Slow Fashion Market
- Sunday, 10 November 2024 – Slowly Made Christmas
- Sunday, 23 March 2025 – Slow Fashion Market
- Sunday, 8 June 2025 – Slowly Made Art & Lifestyle Market
These events will promote the talented maker community of Brisbane and introduce the beautiful Racecourse Road precinct to market visitors.
Art showcase - Vibrantly Vacant
Council installed a temporary art showcase on three vacant shopfronts at 77 Racecourse Road (the corner of Racecourse Road and Kent Street) as part of the work to promote, activate, refresh and support the Racecourse Road precinct.
The temporary art showcase featured the work of Debra Hood and was in place from June 2023 to May 2024 when the premises was redeveloped.
Objectives
Promote
Promote is one of four key objectives in the delivery phase of Growing Precincts Together.
Council engaged Style Magazine to deliver a suite of online promotions in May and June 2023 to promote Racecourse Road as a destination. This included online articles, Instagram carousels, reels and a tag and share competition.
View the published articles:
Council also engaged Excite Media to develop a contemporary and up-to-date precinct website for Racecourse Road, providing a directory of all businesses.
Support
Council offered businesses in the Racecourse Road precinct the opportunity to apply for free one-on-one support programs delivered by expert providers. They included:
Refresh
For the refresh deliverable, Council offered 2 programs where expert providers assisted businesses to refresh the look of their business. The programs were:
Activate
From mid-September to mid-October 2023, the local community and Brisbane residents had the opportunity to discover Racecourse Road businesses through a month-long activation which incorporated multiple in-premises events in the precinct.
The Discover Racecourse Road activation introduced an experience element to the precinct and provided opportunities to get to know Racecourse Road businesses and their offerings on a personalised, engaging level. Council collaborated with Liquidity Marketing to support interested businesses to trial an 'experience event, with a focus on wellness, beauty and fashion, dining and kids.
Understand
The understand phase is the foundation of the Growing Precincts Together program. Council documented the businesses and vacancies in the Racecourse Road precinct in 2022.
This was followed by a desktop audit to gather directory information for all businesses in the precinct and identify community groups in the area. Key to this phase was a precinct survey which was delivered as an online survey for customers, businesses and workers in November-December 2022.
Engage
In the engage phase, Council hosted an information session in February 2023 to present Council’s insights from the understand phase and to launch the one-on-one support and refresh programs that businesses in the precincts could apply for.
In 2022-23 Council also hosted monthly coffee connects for businesses in the precinct to catch up with each other and Council officers to share ideas for the precinct, network and provide feedback. The coffee connects were held at cafes in the precincts, and businesses in the precincts were given the opportunity to express their interest in hosting a coffee connect.
The team also sent regular email updates to all businesses in the precinct to update them on opportunities through the project and seek feedback.