NQ builder lands national award with $ 1m Annandale job Makeover a winner

A $ 1 MILLION Townsville home builder a prized building award.

Nixon Build & Design scooped the luxury alterations and additions category valued over $ 1 million in the Master Builders 2017 awards held in Hobart last weekend.

The company is believed to be the only Townsville business which has won a Master Builders national award.

The only other recipient is Brisbane- based Seymour Whyte which won a gong in 2013 for its work on the Townsville cruise ship terminal, while makeover of a has won a local second national Nixon Build won a similar alterations and additions award in 2016 for its renovation of a Belgian Gardens home.

Master Builders regional manager Melissa Coulter said Nixon Build’s win was a fantastic achievement and a credit to the region.

“It is a great result for this region considering we have been doing it tough. This is only our third national award for a project in North Queensland,” Ms Coulter said.

The 2017 project was an ambitious rebuild of a River Park Drive home in Annandale developed in the 1990s by Townsville builder, now prominent developer, Laurence Lancini.

About two- thirds of the single- sto- rey structure was demolished and an existing pool, garage and guest room were retained and remodelled.

Builder Bret Nixon said the key objectives were to optimise the views to Ross River and surrounding parkland and open the house to natural light and prevailing breezes.

“Design architects Outcrop Architecture drove the project vision with a spectacular 6m- high alfresco void opening the house to the pool and the river landscape,” Mr Nixon said.

Mr Nixon was unsure why so few national awards had come to Townsville. But he did say Townsville had some incredible talent in building and construction and that competition for the awards was fierce.

“It’s so difficult for us to win in North Queensland when we are up against projects with $ 15 to $ 18 million budgets,” Mr Nixon said.

Meanwhile, the proud Annandale homeowners are delighted.

One of the homeowners, who asked not to be named, said the project had been a collaboration between the architect, builder and mostly his wife.

Sometimes, people stopped to take photographs of the home and trees, he said. “The views are fantastic. It’s a win for North Queensland,” the homeowner said.

He agreed it would make year’s Christmas celebrations much more special. this that