SEVEN OF THE BEST
Council expected to approve all Nova city towers
behind a $550 million luxury residential project in the Cairns CBD are on the verge of securing final approval to build all seven of their towers.
Apartment sales are gathering momentum as foundation work for the first 17-storey Nova Light tower nears completion and builders make final bids to score the lucrative construction contract.
Cairns Regional Council’s planning and environment committee is poised to give the entire proposal the green light tomorrow, paving the way for quick-fire construction of seven new additions to the inner-city skyline.
Nova City sales director Zak Thaker said Aspial, the publicly-listed Singaporean company behind the development, had no intention of dawdDEVELOPERS ling. “We intend to progress one tower after the other,” he said.
“We’re not going to stall, or be stopping and starting.”
This week’s final approval will allow works to begin in earnest.
“What we previously had was approval for towers one and two and preliminary approvals for towers three to seven,” Mr Thaker said.
“Now we have one final approval for all seven towers.”
The approval includes two new additions to the venture, starting with a former drain bought from Cairns Regional Council to be converted to an access road.
“That’s going to be $5 million, just doing that and incorporating it into the site,” Mr Thaker said.
“It will be used for access to the development when it’s completed, for service trucks and other vehicles instead of going down the boulevard.”
A property next to the Aecom building on Bunda St has also been bought for conversion into 68 new carparks.
“We could have easily put in a commercial building but now we’re just going to put in parking,” Mr Thaker explained.
LDI Constructions is due to wrap up piling works for the first two towers within the next fortnight.
A meeting with tenderers hoping to win the final construction contract will be held in the first week of August.
“It could take a couple of months before we appoint the builder,” Mr Thaker said.