The $130 million Verve Residences, unveiled on Wednesday by Miller Property Corporation, also involves a reimagining of the Cottage Creek stormwater channel as a boardwalk canal linking King and Hunter streets.

Occupying 4585 square metres fronting King Street across from Marketown, the development will feature two 19-storey towers, each 66 metres high, with harbour views from the seventh storey up. Two smaller blocks of five and eight storeys look in to a central podium, with retail and commercial space at street level. 

The environmentally conscious design affords nearly all apartments a north-facing aspect and will allow solar connection throughout. It includes landscaped public areas at street and podium level, including a pathway along Cottage Creek with potential to link King and Hunter streets.

Developer Warwick Miller, whose developments include the Eclipse Apartments at Cooks Hill and Newcastle’s Silk House and Bolton Towers, said he had chosen the site because of the convenience and amenity it offered residents.

“People can walk out of their apartments here across the road to Coles or Woolworths, there are fantastic coffee shops and restaurants around here and it’s also a very short walk to the harbour,” he said.

“If you look at the Spire, which is being built almost opposite us with 160 apartments, and the 200 apartments we are going to put here, it is certainly going to revitalise the west end.”

Because the buildings exceed the approved height limit of 45 metres for the site, the development had to meet the Planning Department’s design excellence guidelines. Having been through this process, Mr Miller was confident it would be approved by council.

He expected the apartments to appeal primarily to live-in owners, rather than investors, with luxury features such as upmarket appliances and a 24-hour concierge to entice residential owners. 

CKDS architect Stuart Campbell, who worked on Verve in partnership with Hill Thalis Architecture, also designed the nearby award-winning Gateway commercial building. He said the buildings were setting a new benchmark in architectural style for the area. 

“It’s a really exciting time to be working as an architect in the city,” he said. 

A development application was lodged this week with Newcastle City Council. If approved, work will begin this year with residents to move in by 2018. The apartments are expected to sell for between $385,000 for a one-bedroom unit to more than $3.5 million for the five-bedroom penthouse.

The development will provide for 270 cars. The developer is negotiating with Hunter Water, which owns an adjoining property, to ensure the walkway along Cottage Creek can be extended to Hunter Street. 

Member for Newcastle and city councillor Tim Crakanthorp welcomed the development as a project that would create employment and contribute to city revitalisation.

“It is good to see high-rise where it is best suited to the development control plans, and that is in the city’s west end,” he said.