Work to start on retirement village after project delays
THE developer behind a $30 million retirement village at the Toowoomba Golf Club has declared it is ready to start construction soon.
Property
Don't miss out on the headlines from Property. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE developer behind a $30 million retirement village at the Toowoomba Golf Club has declared it is ready to start construction soon, after COVID-19 delayed the project.
Aura Holdings has revealed it is close to finalising the necessary finance for the Ninth Middle Ridge, an 85-unit independent living development with views over the golf course.
McNab Construction had already cleared the land off Rowbotham St, with construction supposed to have started already.
But Aura director Tim Russell said the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic had forced the company to act more cautiously and push back the completion date.
"Our equity provider SE Capital provides all the early cash, and takes the usual development risks (at the start)," he said.
"Then, in the past once we've hit a pre-sale mark, we're happy to move forward with the funding and construction.
"We're taking a more prudent approach now, primarily because the banking world has changed (due to COVID-19) and banks are looking to preserve capital.
"We're continuing with pre-sales and they're going well, but we want to finalise our banking situation first."
SE Capital put up $10 million to get the project through the early stages, including local government approval and early clearing works.
Mr Russell said Aura was in advanced negotiations with a lender to secure the remaining finance and finish the retirement village.
"We have more than one banking institution interested, we're in advanced negotiations with one, and we're hoping to finalise it by the end of this month," he said.
"What's made us happy is there is more than one (lender) happy to support the project, which is a big tick with us.
"The site is ready to go, we relocated the golf buggy storage shed, so all that preparation work has been done."
Mr Russell said he expected developers to become more cautious during the current economic climate, which would likely push demand up.
"We definitely think activity will slow, and we're already seeing that," he said.
"Quality projects will still happen, because they do well irrespective of cycle, and we'd put our project in there.
"The counter to that is that you're not going to get a lot of competition when you do get it going."
Northern Rivers council axes public access
After several motions stating local communities were being cut from a fair and democratic process, a Northern Rivers council has voted to severely limit public access and question time in its meetings.
New ‘eco-village’ greenlit for Northern Rivers
After three years of planning, the Afterlee Ecovillage has received approval from Kyogle Council, bringing an intriguing development to the community of Kyogle.