By Gary Corbett 

IN an attempt to better cater to the needs of its 7000-plus members, Beaudesert RSL Club is to get a $2.5 million extension.

When completed the extension, which is expected to be completed some time in 2013, will see the club grow by an additional 200 square metres.

New facilities to be provided for members will include a coffee lounge with seating for 120 people - up from a capacity of just 24 at the moment - a new function room that can be divided into two capable of catering for 180 people, new cafe and alcohol bars and an outside smokers’ area.

In addition, a new food handling area will be provided to cater for the expanded function room plus a new and improved staff room will be built together with a bulk storage area.

Club president Dave Ardrey said the extension, the club’s fifth since it was established in 1980, had been on the drawing board for the past five years.

He said when the work was completed it would be a huge improvement for all club members and staff.

“You have to look towards the future and as it is at the moment the club is getting too small,” he said.

“If you go to the club on a Friday night you will not get a seat, it is clearly too small.

“As a result we have to cater to what our members want and it is clear they want better facilities.

“We are currently losing customers because we can’t fit them all in.”

To facilitate the planned extension, a 1920s-era house owned by the club in Anna Street was recently sold and moved to the Kerry Valley.

Flanders House, as it was called, was used by the RSL Sub Branch until recent times when it moved to new premises in Brisbane Street, with the now vacant land to be used for car parking.

A major component of the extension will be the construction of a function room able to seat up to 180 guests.

The room will be capable of being divided to cater for separate functions, effectively more than doubling the club’s function capacity.

“The town itself needs the RSL club to expand,” Mr Ardrey said.

“I know there are other venues in town that do functions, but when our extension is completed we are hoping to retain all our business rather than send some of it elsewhere.”

While plans for the extension are complete bar minor changes, Mr Ardrey said bank finance was still to be organised.

However he said he did not believe planned Federal Government changes to poker machine laws would have any impact on the club’s ability to borrow the money required.

“The new facilities are not reliant on poker machine revenue,” he said.

“The idea is to provide added space that will provide revenue away from any reliance on the pokies.”