On a strip long-renowned for its proliferation of bars, nightclubs and cheap takeaway joints, Valley Chamber of Commerce president Robin Maini said it was hoped the Brisbane City Council funded upgrade would signal a shift to a new era of dining and retail traders. While the mall’s night economy has always flourished, the day economy has lagged, he said. “The daytime economy is about attracting the right tenants so they will attract the right sector of people,” Mr Maini said. “Tourists, business people, people who work in the city, they all go to Emporium, James Street or Gasworks.

“I want them here.” A yet-to-be-named international hotel chain has already been secured to transform the vacant, turn-of-the-century TCB building in the centre of the mall into a four-star boutique hotel, which Mr Maini heralded as a coup for the area. “That in itself is a very big uplift to that mall,” he said. “What that will attract will be the new local restaurants and retailers. Nice restaurants and cafes always want to be near nice hotels.” Inevitably, however, Mr Maini said, the upgrade could spell the end of the tenure of some current tenants.

New aesthetic requirements will be placed on operators following the completion of the project and rents are expected to rise. “We are not trying to get rid of anyone, it’s just the type of businesses we want to operate are going to be ones that attract a different type of consumer during the day,” he said. “The way we have laid out the design during the day is much more conducive to upmarket dining and there is a standardisation with three options for outdoor furniture. “If you have a fast food place that thinks it can get away with cheap plastic outdoor chairs and broken tables, they no longer have that choice. “If you set a standard and they can meet that standard, we will be glad to have them.

“If they can’t they will have to know that someone else will be glad to take that space.” Lilgun Ozturk, whose family operates two takeaway stores in the mall, said it was not the completion of the revitalisation but the construction period that worried her and fellow traders. “We do need it, it should be good because it is really dirty looking,” she said. “But six months it will be closed, its going to be very bad. We all still have rent to pay and we don’t have any other incomes.”

The mall is not expected to be closed during construction works but day traffic is expected to diminish significantly. Oshin Japanese Restaurant owner Isaac Lee echoed Mrs Ozturk’s concerns, saying he was dependent on daytime trade. “The upgrade is okay but I’m worried about during the upgrade,” he said. “They say after the upgrade there will be more business but they can’t guarantee it.”

Mr Lee said he was also concerned the project timeframe would blow out, with the nearby Chinatown Mall upgrade taking nine months. Key features of the revitalisation project include replacing the current brick paver surface with patterned concrete, the installation of a large wire roof structure and the installation of small retail pods in the centre of the mall. Some of the existing trees will also be relocated. One of the primary considerations of the upgrade, Mr Maini said, had always been to gentrify without eliminating the Valley’s creative soul.

So even the name is out. When the project is completed mid-year, Brunswick Street Mall will be no more. In its place will be the Valley Creative District. “The growth of the Valley has been around this one area called the Valley mall, everything is going up around this mall but nothing has happened to this mall,” he said. “The mall is going to be revitalised with a clean and modern look but to keep that culture of creativity.”