‘Decrepit’ Nowra property flipped to luxury office space embracing COVID-19 future

The man behind an exciting new development says he took a risk when buying a 1880 building filled with ‘dead pigeons and asbestos’ but flipping it into luxury offices has paid off.

An iconic south coast building has been given a new lease of life, with the design of its new five-star office space embracing COVID-19 safety and the mental health needs of tenants.

Wollongong developer Maurice Bertapelle said his company Iconic Property Holdings took a risk buying the heritage building right in the centre of Nowra in the wake of the Black Summer bushfires.

“When all the advice said don’t do it, we put our faith in Nowra,” Mr Bertapelle said.

“When COVID-19 kicked in I was panicking, but thought it could be a good opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

“We researched and redesigned with emphasis on creating a workplace that was not only luxurious but looked after its people’s physical and mental health in this new world.”

The heritage building in Nowra's CBD has been given a makeover by Wollongong’s Property Holdings.

Mr Bertapelle said despite the impacts of COVID-19 and floods, the building, dubbed ICONIC and built in 1880, will open this week.

The iconic building has become a passion project for Mr Bertapelle, who says he saw “beauty” is what was a “decrepit building” full of dead pigeons and asbestos.

The building was a Grace Brothers Department Store from 1986 to 2003, before becoming a Spotlight store in 2003, and has sat vacant since 2015.

The new office space offers “innovative inclusions with a focus on providing a healthy and exciting workplace”, Mr Bertapelle said.

Developer Maurice Bertapelle said the building was an opportunity to ‘stand out from the crowd’.

The design has taken into account the older demographic of the Shoalhaven, and has widened hallways for social distancing.

“ICONIC was designed and built for the future to cope with the current Covid virus and provide a safer work environment as well as providing lifestyle facilities to create a happy workplace environment, with features such as an airconditioning system which kills 99.8 per cent of virus’, bacteria, and the flu through the use of UVA filters,” Mr Bertapelle said.

“Paints that are endorsed by National Asthma Foundation and anti viral partitions.”

The luxury space will include an onsite cafe, bathrooms, with showers and changing facilities, virtual windows of the world, renewable energy efficiency and bike storage.

“We’ve just kept adding to it as we went, and it looks fantastic,” Mr Bertapelle said.