Work starts on $15M Caloundra apartment building

BUSINESS owners Barry and Nicky Kuster are so excited about moving to the Coast they have rented a unit down the road from where their new home is being built.

Turning the first sod at the Aqua View Apartments site in Kings Beach are (from left) husband-and-wife developers Alex Yuan and Stella Sun with construction company Tomkins director Mike Tomkins and Councillor Tim Dwyer. Picture: Stuart Cumming

BUSINESS owners Barry and Nicky Kuster are so excited about moving to the Coast they have rented a unit just down the road from where their new home is being built.

That home will be part of a $15 million apartment block development that will fill an empty block on the Kings Beach skyline.

Husband-and-wife developers Alex Yuan and Stella Sun, from Brisbane, turned the first sod at the Canberra Terrace site on Thursday to mark the start of construction of Aqua View Apartments.

The eight-storey development will feature 31 apartments looking from the hillside towards the ocean.

Mr Yuan said he and his wife moved from China to Australia in 2013 and chose to build at Caloundra because they loved the area.

He said the project would cost about $15 million and expected it would be built by December next year.

The units are for sale, except for the penthouse, which he said they would keep for themelves.

Ms Sun said she fell in love with the area at first sight.

"We just need to walk to the beach and walk to the CBD so why not choose it," Ms Sun said.

"It's a very good lifestyle in the Sunshine Coast and Caloundra."

The Kusters, who run a hire company at Yatala, said they chose to buy a unit at the Sunshine Coast instead of the Gold Coast because the area was not as busy.

"We are just at that point in our lives where we have got a little bit more time on our hands and we would like to enjoy it," Mr Kuster said.

Tomkins Sunshine Coast construction manager Barry Lehmann said the project would create the equivalent of 262 full-time jobs.

He will oversee construction of the building.

"The project will commence on site here within the next three weeks," Mr Lehmann said.

He said the company would do its best to control noise and dust during construction.

"The excavation can get a bit noisy and we have just got to work within our confines of our development approval and our working hours."

Sunshine Coast Councillor Tim Dwyer said at the sod turning that as far as he knew, it was the first time Chinese developers had started a project of this size in Caloundra.

Originally published as Work starts on $15M Caloundra apartment building