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Headlands Resort: coastal apartments replace historic Austinmer pub
Community opposition managed to stall a hotel development for nearly 30 years on a headland on the NSW south coast. But a plucky developer has finally managed to win planning approval to build 61 apartments at scenic Austinmer, about 65km south of Sydney.
The $25 million complex is being developed on the old Headlands Hotel site, first slated for a hotel, motel or apartment conversion back in 1986.
Several developers tried and failed to gain approval for projects on the site, aimed at replacing the increasingly dilapidated hotel, which began life as a 60-room guesthouse in 1927.
These included media personality Mike Willesee’s Transmedia Group, which had a mid-1990s plan for a $9.6m redevelopment that would have featured a 199-room hotel and conference centre. The original Headlands was also the setting of a short-lived Seven Network drama of the same name, which aired in 2005.
Most apartments in the Headlands Resort have already sold off the plan to locals, attracted by the position of the block between two beaches. But the developer, the Steven Charles Property Group, has decided to offload five more apartments in the project, which is expected to be completed within a year.
Under the Wollongong City Council development approval, owners can live in their apartments for up to three months a year. The average sale price is $650,000 to $700,000 for a one-bedroom apartment of about 75sq m and a car space.
MMJ Real Estate project manager Maurice Bertapelle is selling the remaining apartments.
The NSW central coast based Stevens Charles Property Group received the go-ahead for the new development from the council about a year ago.
Source: The Australian, Lisa Allen, 7th November 2015
Originally published as: Headlands Resort: coastal apartments replace historic Austinmer pub
