The front facade has gone up on developer Bruce Bolam’s newest $10 million building project in George Street – and it took a 200-tonne crane to do it.
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It will be the 18th building Mr Bolam has developed in Bathurst.
The building will be named Osborne House in honour of Clive and Betty Osborne, who previously owned the site and lived there for many years. Mr Osborne was a long-serving member of state parliament.
Mr Bolam said he has found that giving multi-tenanted buildings a name makes them much easier to recognise.
He added that he will ultimately incorporate three properties, including the Osborne House site and the former McIntosh and McPhillamy building, into one 2609 square metre site.
The Osborne building will be in a heritage style with wide verandahs, inset shopfronts and wrought-iron work.
Mr Bolam says the building will be well-lit at night, making it a feature of lower George Street.
“It will have character and there is lots of detail,” he said.
“It’s more expensive to do it this way, but I love this style of building and strongly object to people calling it fake heritage.”
Osborne will be a two-storey building with shops and/or offices on the ground floor and two upmarket apartments, serviced by their own lift, on the first floor.
Mr Bolam said the panels which make up the building’s facade weigh 20 tonnes each, and a 200-tonne crane was required to lift them. It is the biggest crane in the area, requiring three semi-trailers to move it.
Mr Bolam said a further 20 panels are being made for the sides of the building and they will go up in about a week.
“A two-level car park with capacity for 42 onsite car parking spaces for the building’s tenants will go in behind it,” he said.
Mr Bolam said it has taken three years to get the project up and running because of issues with vehicular access.
Once Osborne House is completed, work will begin on the former McIntosh and McPhillamy building.
Mr Bolam has already gutted the top floor in preparation, however, the start of this project is at least 12 months away.
The building will be extensively renovated and will be named The Rutherford in recognition of James Rutherford of Cobb and Co fame.
Mr Bolam said, coincidently, the first building he did up in Bathurst was the George Street Walk next door to his new development. He renovated it in 1977.
He has no plans to sell any of his buildings but intends to hold on to them, eventually passing them on to his children.
“I like to think I am building not just for today, but for the next 30 or 40 years,” he said.
