Newcastle West: Planning department to move 460 staff to ex-The Store site

The NSW Government will spend more than $32m to move 460 workers to the redeveloped site of The Store.

DPIE staff will occupy the new office building from April. Picture: Doma Group.

Almost 500 workers from the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment will occupy the former The Store site from next year.

The department said those staff already work within Newcastle and won’t be relocated from elsewhere in the state.

NSW Budget papers confirmed the government will spend $32m to lease the site over a 10-year period.

Plans for the site include an office building and two apartment blocks. Picture: Doma Group.

Doma Group lodged a development application for the $200m redevelopment of The Store site in 2018.

The plans included the 12-storey office building, two 30-storey apartment blocks, a 678-space car park and a bus interchange on the corner of Hunter St and Stewart Ave.

“With multiple leases expiring in 2021, The Store provides an opportunity to consolidate our accommodation footprint,” a DPIE spokeswoman told The Newcastle News.

“The 460 staff members are from our existing DPIE offices in central Newcastle.

“Staff will occupy the new building from April 2021.”

The Store was a Newcastle icon. Picture: Supplied.

The site’s bus interchange and car park have already opened.

The office building is expected to be completed in March, with the final slab poured last month.

The Store site is the seventh Newcastle project by development company Doma Group.

The Store, or The Newcastle and Suburban Co-operative Society, was established in 1898, with the Newcastle West building opened in 1906.

At its peak in the mid-70s, The Store operated 15 other retail branches, had close to 100,000 members and employed 1450 workers.