A 100-place child care centre and a drive-through fast food restaurant will be built on a multi-million dollar development site that has begun to take shape on Bathurst’s eastern entrance.
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They will be built on two of five lots that have been sold at The Gateway commercial subdivision on the Great Western Highway, Gateway Land Corporation development director Bob Walsh said on Wednesday.
Questioned about whether Bathurst had the capacity to absorb another commercial subdivision and its occupants, Mr Walsh pointed to the fact the lots had been snapped up before the marketing campaign for The Gateway had begun and the earthworks had finished.
Civil works and roadworks for stage one of the development, comprising 19 commercial lots on five hectares, are due to be complete in July.
Taking into account title registrations and other development requirements, Mr Walsh said buildings are expected to be going up on the stage one sites by 2018 and the next stage is likely to be developed in 2019.
Of the other three lots that have been sold in stage one, Mr Walsh said they will be used for a petrol station and two casual dining restaurants.
“Stage one of this major development alone will result in the creation of 20,000 square metres of buildings,” he said.
Mr Walsh said The Gateway had been planned for more than 10 years.
The impetus to begin developing the site was the NSW Government’s two-and-a-half year, $104 million upgrade to the Great Western Highway through Kelso, he said.
“That major piece of infrastructure provides accessibility, visibility and traffic, which are very important factors,” he said.
The main access to the development will be at the new Ashworth Drive roundabout built as part of the upgrade to the highway.
Mr Walsh said the site’s B5 zoning did not allow shopping centres, supermarkets and department stores, but medical centres, auto showrooms, motels and bulky goods retail businesses were likely to be attracted.
The total Gateway site is 27 hectares and the total development period could be up to five to six years, he said.
Both Mr Walsh and Burgess Rawson managing director Guy Randell, who will be marketing the development, emphasised that Bathurst was the right location for the development because of its strong population growth.
See the masterplan for the entire site at www.thegatewaybathurst.com.au