Bathla Files 400-Apartment Central Coast Masterplan

Bathla Group has launched plans for a major residential project in a coastal NSW tourist town halfway between Newcastle and Sydney.

The plans for 9-33 The Entrance Road, The Entrance, propose an eight-tower housing development with a $102.3-million price-tag.

The towers, which will be six to nine storeys, will contain 414 residential apartments and were designed by Embece and BVN, with support from urban planners Mecone.

The shoptop apartment plans include 11 food and retail premises on the lower floors, along with a new gym, which will total 5456sq m of commercial GFA.

Bathla is suggesting that 45 serviced apartments for tourists are included in the more permanent residential apartments.

Of those, there will be 129 three, 155 two and 123 one-bedroom units, plus a number of four-bedroom apartments.

Fifteen parcels of land will be combined to make up the 19,294sq m site with the project to be constructed in two stages.

▲ The $102-million development has been referred to the Hunter & Central Coast Regional Planning Panel.

Site 1 on the western side of Oakland Avenue includes a three-level basement structure and a single-storey podium containing retail, food and beverage and a gymnasium below six residential towers.

Site 2, on the eastern side of Oakland Avenue, is the other two towers. The buildings will be serviced by 853 parking spaces.

The Entrance is predominantly a tourist town with extensive holiday accommodation—the nearest regional city is Gosford. 

The Central Coast’s regional plan identifies the importance of infill housing in local centres such as The Entrance and although Bathla’s plans for the town are some of the biggest, there has been a host of other developments in the works. 

A six storey shoptop residential for a vacant lot at Torrens Avenue and Coral Street and a $2-million affordable townhouse development were proposed last year for the growing community.

The majority of Bhart Bhushan’s Bathla Group projects are in Sydney, with plans launched recently for a twin tower shoptop development at Edmondson Park, a complex of four-storey apartment blocks in Western Sydney and a 146-unit Blacktown project.