MacDonald Law restoration bringing fresh life to historic CBD icon
A passion for community, a love for the city’s architectural heritage, and a vision to create a collaborative legal precinct behind the CBD’s latest heritage restoration project.
Published 20 June 2023
Photography: Prestige Media
Much like buying a home. . .for any business owner, finding the perfect location and space for your business is as much a rewarding and exciting experience as it can be a labour of love.
For local law firm MacDonald Law, that decision – and the choice to move from their leased premises of more than a decade into their very own space - was one born out of their passion for the local community, an appreciation of the city’s rich architectural history, and the ambition to one day create a legal precinct in the CBD.
As massive advocates for quality character restoration projects, we took the liberty of stopping by to talk to Directors and Solicitors, Sarah-Jane & Jag MacDonald, the second-generation brother & sister duo behind MacDonald Law, about what inspired their plans and progress to date.
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“It really started a few years ago during COVID”, explains Sarah-Jane.
“I think, as a whole, everyone started to realize just how important stability and that sense of community [both in and outside the workplace] was for us all to thrive, and so we wanted to move into a space which was our own – a place where we could create that environment that lets our clients and team feel at ease and actually helps to foster that sense of community!”
“It’s one of the things that Jag & I love so much about Toowoomba; that feeling of community. We grew up here; our father (Shane MacDonald) started MacDonald Law in 2006 and expanded to our Brisbane office in 2018, but Toowoomba is our home and where it all began. Both Jag & I went through school and then university in Toowoomba, and even when there were other opportunities afield, the pull of the local community was too strong (in a good way). So much so that we both actively decided to stay and why we feel so strongly about investing back into the local region.
It’s also part of the reason we chose the CBD location and the building we did.
At the time, we looked at A LOT of different commercial spaces that were available (and that probably needed far less work), but for us, the charm and character of these historic Toowoomba buildings in the heart of the community and CBD, is what makes them so appealing and important to preserve.
From what we can tell, this was part of the original Club Hotel (built around the 1880s), which was then split up in the 1950s and sold off to individuals when the pub shut down. The Club Hotel was the whole corner; our property all the way to the corner of the Laneway, where Joel’s used to be.
The owners who bought the property in the 1950s held onto it until Jag, and I bought it, and at some point or other, it has been a Café, an art gallery, retail space, a gym and now a law firm. It is kinda cool being a part of that history”, Sarah-Jane adds.
Of course, with any heritage development project, it can be messy, there is often a lot of rectification work and restoration that can often make it far more challenging than simply gutting or building from new, but the reward is there in seeing these character buildings come back to life.
“Understandably, being that old, the property needed a lot of repairs”, Sarah-Jane continues.
“Un-even levels that needed to be connected, potholes in the slab, plumbing to be upgraded; we have given it quite a lot of TLC - but we’ve tried to keep the beautiful wooden floors, elements of the exposed brick and original features wherever possible, and then also modernise in the areas that needed to be replaced or couldn’t be restored.
It has been a massive two-year process to date.
Jag and I took the lead on the design (how good is Pinterest!), working closely with our amazing builders, and there’s still a way to go, but we’ve recently moved in upstairs and are excited for downstairs to come to life in the coming months. Then, it’s onto restoring the front facade.
One of the good things about this site was that the next-door building was aquired and renovated a few years ago by a couple of Barristers, who made it into Toowoomba’s first Chamber Group. By purchasing this space, we were able to be side by side and really start to create a legal corner of the CBD.
It would be a dream to have more law firms’ side-by-side so that we could have a really beautiful legal space in Toowoomba.
In the meantime, we’re excited to work with our clients and to see MacDonald Law thriving in its very own space.”
MacDonald Law
MacDonald Law offer a number of services across Toowoomba, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, specialising in Criminal Law, Family Law, Domestic Violence, Property and Wills and Estates Law.
436 Ruthven St, Toowoomba City QLD 4350
07 3114 2222
