High-profile Newcastle developer Keith Stronach has lodged plans for a major new apartment complex on the NBN television studios site on The Hill.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The $70 million project, one of Stronach Property’s largest residential redevelopments, includes 172 units across several buildings in a natural amphitheatre below The Obelisk.
Mr Stronach paid the Nine Network $15.65 million last year for the Mosbri Crescent site, which also fronts Kitchener Parade next to Newcastle East Public School.
A company spokesman described the land on Friday as the “last major development site” on The Hill.
“With NBN set to vacate the premises in 2020-2021, a development application has been lodged for an iconic new residential development named Sovereign Park that is set to breathe new life into the historic heartland of Newcastle,” he said.
The project includes 11 two-storey townhouses arranged in an arc around Mosbri Crescent, 161 units spread across three buildings and parking for 242 cars.
Mr Stronach said the development would be similar in style to the company’s Regency Park housing project in nearby Queen Street and would include pools, sun decks, outdoor gyms and bowls in a “park-like” setting.
Nine Network applied successfully to Newcastle City Council to rezone the land from low-density to medium-density residential before the site changed hands.
The NSW Department of Planning endorsed the changes in April last year.
The department’s executive director regions, Steve Murray, said at the time that new height limits for the site would allow for a “maximum building height of seven storeys”, but the plans lodged last week include a nine-storey building.
Some nearby residents had opposed the rezoning and height variations on the grounds they would affect traffic, parking and the area’s heritage character and put pressure on enrolments at the school.
Developers have also revived and expanded plans for what is now a 20-storey apartment building in Denison Street, Newcastle West, near the Cambridge Hotel, defying a 5 per cent drop in Newcastle unit prices in the second half of 2018.