Newcastle waterfront district continues transformation with two new towers approved

Two new residential towers approved for the Newcastle waterfront precinct have brought the total residential pipeline in the city's transformed former industrial foreshore to more than 2,400 dwellings, as the momentum from the decade-long revitalisation of Newcastle's harbour edge continues to generate development confidence.

The approved towers, at 28 and 34 storeys respectively, will sit on the northern edge of the Honeysuckle precinct, with ground-floor retail and restaurant tenancies required by the development consent to maintain the waterfront activation that has made Honeysuckle Newcastle's most popular dining and leisure precinct. Views across the harbour to Fort Scratchley were a central consideration in the design review, with setbacks and landscaping requirements protecting sightlines from the public foreshore path.

City of Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the approvals demonstrated ongoing confidence in Newcastle's city centre despite the broader softening of the national development market. "Newcastle has transformed itself over a decade, and the development industry has noticed," she said.

The Honeysuckle Development Corporation, which oversees the precinct's development framework, confirmed that more than 6,000 residents now live within 500 metres of the waterfront, compared with fewer than 200 before the revitalisation program began. The number of food and beverage outlets in the precinct has grown from four in 2010 to 43 today.

Commercial development is also tracking well, with two new office buildings under construction in the Wickham precinct connecting Honeysuckle to the inner west, adding approximately 18,000 square metres of commercial floor space to a market that has seen vacancy fall below five per cent.

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