Tower a ‘shot in the arm’
CHEVRON Island is to get a new apartment building, shops and offices in its main street under a project first flagged eight years ago.
The Isola tower, at 66-68 Thomas Drive, is to be undertaken on a site bought by Chinese company CAP Chevron from lawyer Tony Hickey.
It will consist of a 19-level tower, a separate five-level office building, and a cafe, restaurant and retail area.
Roland Evans, of Canford Estate Agents, said the site’s owner was confident, given the success of other boutique-like towers on Chevron, that it was time to “get going”.
“The company is poised to launch marketing and, depending on the level of off-theplan sales, aims to have Isola under way by mid-2021,” Mr Evans said.
“It’s a project with some panache and it will give Chevron a real shot in the arm, delivering a building where residents will be a few steps from the existing shops.
“Importantly, Isola will provide the first new office space of substance on the island for many years.”
The Isola tower is to have 86 two and three-bedroom apartments.
Mr Evans, whose Canford group is marketing Isola, said half of the 800sq m of office space was spoken for.
He said Isola (the Italian word of island) had been designed in collaboration with US-based Studio LFA, botanist Patrick Blanc and urban designers Roberts Day.
A horizontal green wall will interlock the tower and office section and define the corner of Mawarra and Anembo streets and Thomas Drive.
CAP Chevron, owned by a fund from steel city Hangzhou in northeastern China, paid $11.5m for the 1888sq m site.
Mr Hickey bought the site for $1m and had owned it for 21 years.
In 2012 he gained approval for a project called St Thomas Place that consisted of a 16level tower and five-floor office building.
The height of the apartment tower was lifted to 19 levels ahead of its 2016 sale to the Chinese company, which manages assets worth billions of dollars.