148 Golf Residences Planned for Mereweather Golf Course

4 years ago
148 Golf Residences Planned for Mereweather Golf Course

Initial plans for a $120 million Development including 148 Residences surrounding Mereweather Golf Course in Newcastle has been approved by the Regional Planning Panel earlier this month.

The development will create a seniors living precinct with serviced residences located within the golf course and situated between Mereweather and Adamstown.  The project was originally announced by the Mereweather Golf Club in 2016 and involves a 99-year lease of the development land to Thirdi Group.

The development is likely to strike a chord with Seniors seeking to downsize from their historic family home.  A report published by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) found 26% of over-55 and Seniors households had downsized. With 6.5 million Australians aged 55 or older living in approximately 4.3 million homes, the AHURI found downsizing could be relevant to 2.5 million households.  Another third had considered downsizing and hence there appears to be a strong appetite in the future for homes enabling Australian Seniors to age well and age in place.

The Hunter and Central Coast Regional Planning Panel granted concept approval for the Plans from Thirdi Group and Mereweather Golf Club, which includes four towers, the seniors precinct, wellness centre and carpark.  The car park is located below two podiums, upon which the four residential towers will be constructed. 

The site compatibility certificate, granted by the planning panel, ensures development proposals are broadly compatible with land uses, before advancing to the development application lodgement stage.

Merewether Golf Club captain Aaron Spalding said the project would help secure the club's financial future, after starting the process four years ago.

"It also paves the way for significant investment to take place in our course infrastructure and facilities, something that was really important to our members when we decided to explore this type of partnership with Thirdi Group."

"These are the sorts of developments our community needs in a Covid-19 recovery," Thirdi Group's Luke Berry said.

"We estimate that our project will create over 1,000 jobs in the region during construction and close to 100 ongoing jobs when the new club, facilities and seniors living village is operational."

The two parties will now work together to finalise the Development Applications, which is planned to be lodged with the Newcastle City Council by mid-2020.

To see our Mereweather Golf Course Summary, please click here.