Coles has landed final approval for its $15 million ‘Mayfield East Village’, but there is still no starting date on construction works for the project that has been in the pipeline for more than six years.
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A fourth incarnation of the proposal received the green light from Newcastle council’s development applications committee this month, after it was lodged by Coles Property Group last October.
A Coles spokesperson said the company was still working through a number of conditions imposed by the council.
“Representing a multi-million dollar investment by Coles, the precinct will include a market-style Coles supermarket, Liquorland and specialty retailers and will create around 200 construction jobs and more than 100 retail jobs once completed,” she said.
The two-storey complex will be built on Maitland Road between Havelock and Church streets, with 249 parking spaces to be provided.
The supermarket will trade from 6am to midnight from Monday to Saturday and from 7am to 10pm on Sundays.
The land will be re-subdivided into five lots, with two to remain vacant until they can be developed in the future; one zoned for residential development and one zoned for commercial development.
Owner of Davies Shoes and Mayfield Business Association chair Ivor Davies welcomed news that the site - an eyesore for the suburb - would finally be redeveloped.
“It makes us a rather special suburb with three supermarkets,” said Mr Davies, whose family-run business has been operating in the area since 1939.
However he was “terribly sorry” for the businesses that would lose their on-street parking as a result, with 15 one-hour parking spaces to be culled from Maitland Road.
Traffic and parking concerns dominated the 26 objections to the proposal received by council and Mr Davies said the final version had failed to take their concerns into account.
“We worked quite well with Coles and we always believed there were alternatives, but unfortunately the RMS didn’t find those satisfactory,” he said.
Mr Davies described the on-street parking as ‘crucial’ to the trade of small businesses, which had been deliberately established in that area because of the convenient access for customers.
Concerns were also raised by residents about the devaluation of properties and that the development would have ‘unreasonable noise impacts’, addressed by restrictions on delivery times.
Separate development applications are expected to be lodged with council for the specialty retail outlets.
