Wyong: Kooindah Waters has lodged plans for a 24-storey, $97M ‘sun dial’ tower

A Central Coast golf club has lodged plans for an iconic $97 million tower complete with rooftop “sky bar’ to rival anything in Sydney and inject $6.5 million a year into the local economy.

Kooindah Waters Resort has lodged plans for the final jewel in its 2002 masterplan with an iconic 24-storey tower that will cast `sun dial’ like shadows on the surrounding golf club.

The plans include hundreds of serviced and residential apartments, a restaurant, conference centre, 253 more parking spaces and a rooftop bar that will see the resort compete with venues in Sydney and Newcastle for major tourism events.

The site is the final stage of development for the tourism resort and residential community, which was first given conceptual consent for its master plan in 2002.

The development application (DA) will see alteration and additions to the existing hotel, serviced apartments and golf club building along with the construction of a new 24-storey mixed use building comprising of additional parking, a restaurant, rooftop bar and conference centre premises, 97 serviced apartments and 98 residential units on a vacant part of the site.

Top spot for a drink: an artist’s impression of the `sky bar’ on the 24th storey. (supplied image)

“The upgrade of the existing commercial facilities on the site will have a variety of positive regional and local economic benefits in terms of job creation (102 full-time jobs) and expand the viability of the current commercial operation,” planners for the project said.

“The tower is a one-off, envisaged by the 2002 Master Plan and has been designed as an iconic structure to be viewed in the round.”

It will also have a “sun dial like character cast on the adjoining golf course and lake” and boast an additional 253 parking spaces, taking total on-site parking to 463 spaces.

While the DA has been lodged with Central Coast Council the proposal, with a price tag of $97.4 million, is deemed a regionally significant development and will ultimately have to be approved by the Hunter and Central Coast Joint Regional Planning Panel.

The 24-storey tower is billed as being `iconic’. Artist's impression: supplied

“The existing golf club building and new building are to be integrated with connections via the basement car park and main foyer to the existing golf club building. The new serviced apartments and restaurant/conference/recreation facilities are to be managed and integrated into the existing tourist accommodation operation on the site,” the DA states.

The 24-storey tower will feature “hanging garden” landscaping to soften the look of the building and include basement parking, ground floor foyers, new restaurant, conference areas and back-of-house facilities, a gym/spa, pool, meeting rooms and office space on level one, serviced apartments on levels two to five, residential units on levels six to 23 and a rooftop bar and function space on level 24.

Under the plans Kooindah Waters plans to open a more direct walking/cycle way to Wyong Train Station via Warners Ave, reducing the distance from 2.5km to 1.4km.

The tower will be built next to the existing three-storey golf club building as seen in this supplied artist's impression.

The development is anticipated to generate about 196 jobs during construction and 102 ongoing jobs, worth about $2.8 million in salaries a year, and inject about $6.46 million into the local economy a year from an additional 46,451 overnight visitors.

“This project is in the public interest because it allows an existing tourist facility to be upgraded to a regionally significant facility that will compete in the Sydney market while also providing housing that is not currently available in the Wyong locality,” the planners said.

“The proposal will upgrade the tourist facilities on the site to a level where they will now be able to compete with larger venues in the Newcastle-Sydney-Wollongong region for events and conferences.

“This will enhance the economic benefits of this facility to its community and provide facilities of a world-class standard to a growing Central Coast.”