Service station, takeaway food outlet planned for major main road

Central Coast developer Stevens Group has lodged $12.8 million plans with City of Newcastle for the service station, takeaway restaurant and 32 industrial units at 71 Industrial Drive.

The centre would be accessed via a road set to be built as part of an approved subdivision on the site that would connect to the traffic light intersection of Vine Street and Industrial Drive.

Sentinel Property Group won approval through the NSW Land and Environment Court to subdivide the 14.3 hectare parcel of land into five lots, one of which was sold to Stevens Group.

Stevens Group development manager Josh Harrod said the service station operator and fast food outlet were yet to be determined but would probably be some of the major franchises.

The site is within two kilometres of two other service stations on the same road, which carries an estimated 37,000 cars a day, however Mr Harrod said the development company saw demand in the area, particularly due to the Port of Newcastle.

"Firstly Industrial Drive is quite a busy road," Mr Harrod said. "This site in particular is after Tourle Street so it will help service a lot of commuter traffic that comes back into town from Stockton.

"But probably more importantly there is the need to help support the port and the port facilities in the short, medium and long-term.

"There are a lot of plans there that are still being finalised, but in some way, shape or form the port will be redeveloped over time.

"So there will be a need for these sorts of services for the heavy vehicles that will be operating in the port, but also the workers that are in the port every day."

The 32 industrial units are also aimed at catering for the industry.

"We have done similar developments in the Hunter, but the intention was to create a space where a lot of those smaller businesses that support the port area have a space where they can operate as well," Mr Harrod said.

"If you look at a lot of the existing buildings and the existing tendencies in that port zoned land, they're all quite large holdings, but we identified there wasn't really that much available for the smaller operators that are there to support the port and a lot of their business is in that area."