Construction has begun on the highly-anticipated Bli Bli Tavern – set to become one of the largest licensed venues on the Sunshine Coast.
The new tavern, slated for opening by mid-2022, will be over three levels, totalling 2350sqm, of a new $20 million five-storey structure.
The $40 million Bli Bli Village development, set on a 3200sqm site, was granted approval by Council early 2016, and the tavern building marks the final piece of the puzzle.
Projected to cost $10-15 million, on the ground floor will be a drive-through bottleshop, above that a gaming lounge, separated from the main pub, on the third level, which will offer a sports bar with TAB, bistro, function room, children’s room, and all-weather deck bar with retractable roof.
The complex will also provide over 150 undercover parking spaces, and house eight single bedroom short-term apartments on the top floor.
Bli Bli Village is the work of developers Michael and Roz White, and the Tavern will be operated by Story Bridge Hotel owner Richard Deery, in partnership with Sunshine Coast Hotels (SCH), which already counts taverns at Baringa, Brightwater and Parklands.
After several years of delays, furthered by COVID-19, SCH managing director and QHA vice-president Scott Armstrong says they are happy to see it “finally get off the ground”.
Bli Bli Tavern will be a considerable step up in size on SCH’s existing venues, which are all around 1300sqm.
Its construction also marks the end of a half-decade of waiting by enthusiastic locals, eager to get their first local.
Around 14 kilometres north-west of the beaches of the Sunshine Coast, the population of Bli Bli has been growing rapidly, counting 7,801 back in 2016, which was up 24 per cent on the previous Census.
Designed by Sprout Architects, with construction by Evans Built, the Bli Bli Tavern will be pitched to a slightly more upmarket audience than venues in surrounding areas, and its creators hope to complement the burgeoning precinct.
Still half-a-year from trading, the opening of Bli Bli Tavern has already been dominating local talk on social media for several years.
