Blacktown seniors living project approved
Workers Lifestyle Group, formerly the Blacktown Workers Club Group, has won approval for a seniors living project with an end value of $500 million.
Parkside Lifestyle Community, as the 5.4 hectare village will be known, will contain 640 units, with the first dwellings, 94 independent living units and a community centre, set to be ready for occupation by late 2024.
The lengthy time frame of the first stage, the member-owned group said, is due to extensive groundworks forecast to cost over $110m.
The overall development should be finished within five years.
Parkside will replace playing club fields.
Long planning process
The permit for 170 Reservoir Road, Blacktown, ends a long process for WLG.
“Seven years on from its conception, Parkside recently gained development approval from Blacktown City Council and Sydney Central City Planning Panel and bank finance is already secured,” a company statement said.
“It is the group’s most ambitious undertaking and a landmark residential development for Blacktown, the fastest growing local government area in NSW, 42 kilometres by road west of Sydney,” it added.
The community neighbours the Workers Sports Club, one of three venues owned by the Blacktown Workers Union, which formed in 1955 and now has 55,000 members.
Another, the Workers Hubertus, at Luddenham, next to the Western Sydney International Airport, turns over $45m per annum, the group said (story continues below).
Transformational for us: WLG
WLG group chief executive Morgan Stewart described Parkside as a transformational project.
“We have been serving this community, as Blacktown Workers Club, for more than 60 years, and that remains our core mission,” he said.
“The Parkside site was freed-up by our board and members committing to a new sporting complex for Blacktown and Western Sydney and it’s now being used by 7000 sports people of all ages,” he added. “Parkside also meets a real need in western Sydney, for a high quality retirement lifestyle, self-contained and secure but literally next door to our Workers Sports facilities”.
Members will follow us
Mr Stewart said the project is a “huge diversification step” – as it seeks to move away from its reliance on traditional club-based income.
“We expect many Parkside residents will be our own members – we’ve been talking to them about this project for years and the most common response we get back is “when can I buy a unit,” Mr Stewart said.
The development will contain 480 independent living units, two community centres, a gym, pool and shops, including restaurants, the company said.
It is also designed with a 160 unit residential aged care facility and gardens and replacement (resident-only) sporting facilities.
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