A Brisbane business leader says it’s time to come up with a strategy to breathe life into the CBD and for the city to have functional “living precincts” like the suburbs.

Coffee Commune founder Phil Di Bella said the CBD has been hit hard and consumer confidence was key.

“We see the CBD as being decimated … fortunately a lot of people in the suburbs are up 10-15 per cent in trade in coffee, obviously in terms of food they are down because of sit-down laws,” he told Scott Emerson.

Mr Di Bella, who also chaired the CBD economic development board, said it’s time to start planning for a “shift change”.

“They have got to become living precincts, what I mean by that is vertical high-rises should be student accomodation … we universities, aged care facilities, we should have hospitals, all the things you can possible imagine that normally used to be out in the suburbs, we should be aiming for it to be in the CBD, so that we can then drive demand with our retail precinct.

“Retail is not going to be the same unless you drive demand and the demand has got to come from people occupying the space.”

Press PLAY below to hear more about his plan