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| BOUNCE BACK: Ken Lothian at Coles' new Ipswich superstore. |
A CITY heart needs a beat, and now finally the rhythm of grocery trucks rumbling their way down Limestone St is returning to Ipswich.
The non-perishables have started arriving - the pest sprays and the candles, the weed killer and the batteries - and soon the rice and flour will be on the shelves. By February 6, the fresh bread will be baking in flash new ovens and the Coles supermarket that was submerged by the floodwaters two years ago will reopen its doors to an eager public.
"Every customer who comes in here cannot wait for it to reopen," said Tania Reinke, the manager of Figure 8 Fashion, a clothing store next door to the supermarket. "This end of town has died down since it's been gone; we've all missed it."
Across the road, dentist Ian Lupton said a lot of businesses had escaped to the suburbs, and the launch of Coles' second "superstore" in Queensland would be a symbolic milestone for the CBD: "It will show that these natural disasters can knock us for six, but we are resilient and we get back on our feet."
Built in the dip of a creek almost 40 years ago, the supermarket was submerged at the peak of the floods, with only its sign poking above the water.
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| TRADING HALT: Coles supermarket in Brisbane St, Ipswich as it looked during the floods in January 2011. |
Project manager for the new 6000sq m store Danny Walker said once the waters receded, only the fire brigade was allowed to enter because of the threat of bacteria.
The building's shell was used as a recovery centre for six months as the company plotted its next move.
Ispwich Mayor Paul Pisasale said he was thrilled when it was announced six months after the flood that the company would knock the shell down and build a superstore at a cost of $25 million.
"Every time I drive past it, I think: 'Wow, it's getting bigger and better. This will bring back the people."
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Thirty-three-year Coles veteran Ken Lothian is the new manager, and said an underground carpark had been built where the store used to be, raising the shopping area above the 2011 flood height.
This will be Coles' seventh superstore in Australia, the only other one in Queensland opening recently at the old hypermarket site in Aspley.
"The whole concept of the store is that the customer can see everything that we do," Mr Lothian said as he walked past the open-plan bakery, butchery and seafood market. Clothing will also be sold.
He understood locals were growing impatient for the store to open, but the logistics were considerable.
"To build a store this great took a lot of planning to fit on the existing block of land," he said. "We are bound by four roads, so a lot of drainage goes underneath the store as well, a lot of engineering feats we would probably never see or understand.
"But it's back. It's taken two years, but it's back."
This will be Coles' seventh superstore in Australia, the only other one in Queensland opening recently at the old hypermarket site in Aspley.
"The whole concept of the store is that the customer can see everything that we do," Mr Lothian said as he walked past the open-plan bakery, butchery and seafood market. Clothing will also be sold.
He understood locals were growing impatient for the store to open, but the logistics were considerable.
"To build a store this great took a lot of planning to fit on the existing block of land," he said. "We are bound by four roads, so a lot of drainage goes underneath the store as well, a lot of engineering feats we would probably never see or understand.
"But it's back. It's taken two years, but it's back."
www.CourierMail.com.au
18.1.13
