Church Street, Dubbo: Plans change for $35 million apartment development in CBD

Major changes have been made to $35m apartment plans for Dubbo with the building – tipped to be the tallest west of the Blue Mountains – to house more than 200 residents.

Render of the $35 million apartment development planned for Dubbo.

Major changes have been submitted for Church Street’s $35 million “striking piece of modernist architecture”, funded by billionaire Harvey Norman founder Gerry Harvey.

It comes after the apartment complex development was given the green light last year and, if the new plans are approved by Dubbo Regional Council, it will see “two additional floor levels [added] to the building”.

According to the developer there will now be “two carparking levels, [a] ground floor commercial level and 12 residential floor levels”.

This will see the number of units increase from 70 to 80 with expectations the building will house more than 200 residents.

Other “minor” changes have been made floor layouts across the whole development.

Render of the proposed development at 1 Church St, Dubbo.

“The 80 residential apartments in the complex comprise [of] eight one-bedroom apartments, 52 two-bedroom apartments, 13 three-bedroom apartments, one three-bedroom sub penthouse apartment, two three-bedroom penthouse apartments, two four-bedroom sub penthouse apartments, one four-bedroom apartment [on] Level 9 and one four-bedroom apartment on Level 10,” the developer said.

The proposed complex is situated in the Dubbo CBD, on the corner of Bligh and Church St, and will offer residents picturesque views of the Macquarie River.

With the original plan including 123 car spaces, the developer revealed there would now be “133 carparking spaces provided over three levels of the development”.

“It is proposed to provide 106 allocated residential spaces … and 16 residential visitor spaces,” the developer said.

Render of the outside of the commercial level of the complex.

Dubbo-based developers the Walkom Brothers have partnered with Mr Harvey to make the development a reality with co-developer John Walkom revealing to NewsLocal last year that the plans had been in the pipeline for more than 15 years.

“We purchased the site in about 2005 and we had the vision to one day do this,” John Walkom said.

The new development plans for No. 1 Church St is expected to house more than 200 people.

“In 2016 we looked at it and crunched some numbers … then we set about having some plans done up and going through the whole decision process, getting it quoted, doing market analysis.

“Then we had that dry period with the drought so we thought it was best to hold off until that was over.”

Although the development was expected to be completed last month, Mr Walkom spoke with NewsLocal this week saying the new plans were “purely because of demand”.

He said “end of December 2024” is now the expected finish date for what will be the tallest building west of the Blue Mountains and the single “biggest development” in Dubbo.

The development application is on exhibition until Christmas Day.