Stevens Group Lends A Helping Hand To Give Ocean Beach Surf Club A New Look!

As part of our voluntary community engagement program, the Stevens Group is honoured to be offering our services by project managing the refurbishment program for the Ocean Beach Surf Club, located on the Central Coast’s Umina Beach.   The renovations include a state-of-the-art enclosed terrace balcony system providing a new weather friendly venue for the surf club, as well as new electronic bi-fold doors internally, giving flexibility for venue hire and accommodating various sized events.

Stevens Group in conjunction with the Ocean Beach Surf Club Management Committee, have been closely working together to bring this project to life and will be commencing construction in early December 2024.   A wonderful facelift for a Surf Club whose commitment to life saving goes above and beyond.

Stevens Group have lodged plans with Newcastle Council for the heritage redevelopment of the Clarendon Hotel, Fred Ash Building and the Bennett Building. The amalgamated site will have access directly through to Wheeler Place and the Newcastle Civic Theatre breathing life into the Clarendon and also into the heart of Newcastle.

The application, if approved by Council, will lead to a full renovation of the existing Clarendon hotel with a new lobby, cocktail bars and lounges on the ground level for guests and patrons as well as twenty two new hotel guest rooms. The centrepiece of the plan is for a 3-level atrium above the existing courtyard, complete with an operable roof to create an oasis in the middle of the city.

Heritage items have been high on the agenda with plans to retain the existing structures which were built in the 1930’s ensuring the preservation of the historical charm of the buildings. The new Clarendon’s design retains its art deco public bar to Hunter Street. The existing ceilings and fireplaces in the Fred Ash Building will be retained providing a sense of the building’s original heritage.

This new lease of life, and its central location, will result in the Clarendon becoming one of Newcastle’s finest entertainment and boutique hotel venues.

We are pleased to announce the completion of our newest residential development, The Residence Apartments at The Vintage.

Located in the heart of Hunter Valley Wine Country, this project received its occupational certificate last week and owners have commenced moving into their new luxury homes.   The 24 extraordinary apartments celebrate both place and space, reflecting subtle elegance within the resort environment.

Inspired design, a breathtaking setting, and a location in the centre of the award-winning Vintage Estate, combines to create one of the Hunter Valley’s most luxurious wine country addresses. The Residence Apartments sees a new and innovative way of living in Australia’s oldest wine region. These extraordinary residences celebrate both place and space, reflecting subtle elegance within the resort environment.

Exciting development update from our Huntlee Project Team.

Stage One of our Huntlee development will be opened the first quarter of 2024.    With a 7 Eleven Service Station and Convenience Store, 23 parking spaces, Fast Food Restaurants Dominos and Subway, this project will prove to be very popular with the Hunter’s Huntlee residents and locals alike.

Tighes Hill’s Built Form is now well underway with Hungry Jacks scheduled to open by Mid-September 2023.
This opening marks the first stage in a large master planned business precinct with Guzman Y Gomez shortly to follow in Q1 2024.

Learn More about the Tighes Hill Commercial Project

The following article was published in Daily Liberal,  28 July.  Story written by and credited to Ciara Bastow.

Steven’s Group director Jason Capuano (left) and Corbin Bond (right) at the opening of the Carl’s Jr restaurant. Picture: Supplied.

Dominos, Taco Bell, Guzman Y Gomez, Total Tools, two childcare centres and the relocation of Fantastic Furniture are all in the works for the Dubbo CBD later this year or early 2023.

Steven’s Group director Jason Capuano attended the opening of Carl’s Jr, and was excited to see the completion of stage one of their development program which included the Mobile petrol station which opened in April 2022.

“We were pretty excited about that, that was basically half a million in construction costs investment in Dubbo,” he said.

New childcare centre

A childcare centre that sits behind Carl’s Jr has officially been built, which was another $2.5 million investment.

“That’s complete and they’re taking enrolments now with the aim to open late July, early August,” Mr Capuano said.

This will allow 130 children to attend the centre and receive education.

“That’s a local business operator and this will be their second childcare centre in Dubbo,” he said.

Taco Bell update

Joining the childcare centre is a vacant lot the Steven’s Group is currently using as a construction compound which has a DA submitted for Taco Bell.

“We’ve been working with Council and Transport NSW for the appropriate access for that, which we hope to have resolved in the next few weeks,” he said.

“The DA has been submitted and been in council since January so we’re hoping to try and move that along.”

Due to trade shortages, material shortages and labour shortages have kept projects from progressing at a faster rate.

“It’s exciting when you get them open even in stages because…the staff can start working and Carl’s Jr has 90 staff, Taco Bell will have another 90 if we can get the issues with council resolved,” he said.

If the issues with council get resolved within the next few weeks like Mr Capuano hopes, they will be able to start construction before Christmas and get the chain open early next year.

Total Tools and a relocation of Fantastic Furniture

On the other side of Endeavour Close, is a 4,200 square metre building that is currently under construction that will house Total Tools and the relocation of Fantastic Furniture.

“That is under construction with the aim of being open and trading by the end of November,” he said.

According to Mr Capuano, the company has spent $20 million in construction alone, with the bulk of which has been built and spent in Dubbo.

“Not only is the construction good for Dubbo trades but being able to get them has been challenging in the current climate and the project has been delayed which is added costs to us,” he said.

Dominos and Guzman Y Gomez come to town

The Steven’s Group have another project on the front of the Dubbo RAAF base, with a childcare centre and fast food restaurants Guzman Y Gomez and Dominos.

“The childcare centre is approved and the fast food restaurants are set to be approved in the next weeks before construction should commence later this year,” Mr Capuano said.

“But there’s a bit of work to do on infrastructure on that one before construction commences but that’s another $5 million in construction activity in Dubbo in the coming six to nine months.”

Mr Capuano said that Dubbo wasn’t only attractive to the Steven’s Group but to national retailers their business works with.

“Businesses like Carl’s Jr and Guzman Y Gomez are pushing into the regions to establish their growth plans around Australia and that includes regional NSW and we partner with them to help facilitate that growth and we built the buildings and they lease them back from us,” he said.

The Stevens Group is one of the industry’s leading private and diversified property development companies.
Founded in 1982 by John Stevens, the company has delivered over 250 quality and award-winning landmark developments throughout New South Wales, including residential properties, industrial, retail, commercial, hotels and resort living. The company has won many awards, including the recent 2021 UDIA Award for the best regional development in NSW with their newly completed Foreshore development at Toronto.

John Stevens grew up on the Central Coast near Gosford and still lives there to this day. His first job was in real estate sales with Peter Walsh, who taught him ethics and the benefits of hard work. The move into property development was driven by a passion for the industry and a desire to create the type of dwellings and communities that people want to live in.

“Everything we create is based on sustainability and quality,” said John. “We build communities that we want to live in ourselves. I’m extremely fortunate to have the best team in the industry beside me, as well as amazing partnerships that have had a major influence over the projects we produce.”

John refers to partners in The Vintage such as golfer Greg Norman and Medallist, with who he collaborated with in the early days of The Vintage in the Hunter Valley, as the 18-hole championship golf course was designed by Greg Norman himself. He also talks with great admiration of the American developer and entrepreneur Don Panoz whom he partnered on the development of Chateau Elan, saying Don was a great guy.

John is also proud of the team that works alongside him. Ben Shoo, the urban designer and Lin Armstrong, our town planner who have worked on the early plans for The Vintage Hunter Valley, and are still on the design team today, along with a number of longterm professionals who have been with the Stevens Group between 20 to 25 years and are considered the best in the industry.

“We never stop looking at new and innovative ways to improve on the unique living experience for our projects”.

The Vintage Hunter Valley is a unique development in the vineyard precinct that combines leisure and tourism with residential dwellings, creating a perfectly balanced lifestyle in a location that is surrounded by cellar doors, restaurants and sweeping country views, all within 2 hours of Sydney. The latest development, The Residence Apartments at The Vintage, for the first time, builds on this by offering luxury space with the ease of apartment living. Designed by EJE, the apartments feature large open plan living spaces leading to balconies that overlook the vineyard views and deliver a new high benchmark of quality and subtle elegance. Currently under construction, the apartments are due to be completed by mid-2023, with many of them already sold to people who currently own in The Vintage – a fact that indicates the high esteem the estate has in the eyes of its community*.

Another exciting new development for The Vintage Hunter Valley is the near completion of NINETEEN, a restaurant and bar complex that will open mid-2022 and is designed to be the centrepiece of The Vintage, delivering a lifestyle that would be hard to match. The venue will be open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch and relaxed dinners with a Sports Bar connected to an undercover outdoor entertainment area. Upstairs is a laid-back, casual dining area with an indoor/outdoor fireplace. The architecture of the building has taken the vineyard architectural style into account, with heritage trusses and 100-year-old timber floors a stylistic feature.

There are plans to extend the estate out to Palmers Lane in the future, and a commitment to the architectural and landscaping guidelines delivered from the beginning of the development. Families will continue to grow within the estate as part of the community.

There is more in the pipeline, from kilometres of running and walking paths, sculptures and lifestyle developments, all forming part of the future vision of the estate.

“It still takes my breath away when I drive into the entrance of The Vintage, and I know we’ve delivered an outstanding project. Over 23 years we have created a sustainable, stunning, natural environment on over 1000 acres of land, and I’m extremely proud of it. We didn’t just build an estate; we created a community.”

Original article published 1/03/2022 by Intouch Magazine here.

A new childcare centre development will soon be coming to Dubbo. The development has recently received approval, with construction to commence shortly at the end of September. Stevens Group looks forward to opening the facility in March, 2022.

The plans seek to subdivide five lots, which make up what is collectively known as the Old Mardi Farm at 414 Old Maitland Rd at the base of Ourimbah State Forest, and create two lots.

One lot with an area of 55.68ha would be rezoned as environmental land, with the remaining 168ha further subdivided into 246 residential lots along with sprawling landscaped parks, cycleways, barbecue areas, 3km loop walking trail and a towering “feature fire place”.

The land is owned by Central Coast businessman Laurie Denton and is being developed in partnership with the Stevens Group. The DA states the residential blocks would be developed over five stages with 70 per cent of the lots more than double the size of the requirement for large rural residential housing at in excess of 1800sq m.

The land has been the subject of a rezoning proposal since 1999 and went before a NSW Planning Gateway determination in 2013 before being approved in 2018. However that approval was never acted upon and a new DA was lodged with Central Coast Council last month.

“Whilst the site represents the only residential land west of the motorway, all services are available to future residents within a few kilometres,” the DA states. Under the plans a grand new entry/exit road would be built about 200m north from the farm’s current driveway onto Old Maitland Rd, with earthworks, internal roads, stormwater sewerage and other utilities provided to future residents. A second emergency access would also be provided towards the south on Old Maitland Road for firefighting purposes.

“A walking trail and seating nodes have been provided throughout the development to take advantage of the natural amenity provided by the surrounding E2 lands as well as the extensive complimentary planting proposed within the landscape plans,” the DA states.

The large community park would feature an open ‘kick-around’ lawn area, shelters with picnic settings and barbecues, nature play area with garden, wood logs, mounded turf area, and brushwood climbing equipment, creek line with river rocks and revegetation, seating platform, drinking fountains and 3km walking trail with signage. The DA will go before the Hunter Central Coast Planning Panel and is currently open for public submissions.

Article published in the Central Coast Express Advocate on August 20th 2021, by author Richard Noone. Read the original article here.

Work on the first stage of a Black Hill industrial estate earmarked to create thousands of jobs will begin in 2022, the developers have announced. Newcastle Council approved Black Hill Industrial’s plans for an initial three-lot subdivision and subsequent one into 62-lot subdivision earlier this week.

Black Hill Industrial is a joint venture company of Central Coast firm the Stevens Group and Hilton Grugeon’s Hunter Land.

The huge subdivision, on what was previously Coal and Allied-owned land, won concept approval from the NSW Planning and Assessment Commission in 2013.

The now approved first stage of the project takes up about 30 per cent of the total developable land. The direct employment places once fully operational was also put at 3600. Equating for the size of stage one, its capital investment value is about $230 million in 2013 dollars and the subdivision should produce about 1300 employment opportunities.

Business Hunter CEO Bob Hawes said the the Black Hill-Beresfield area was “ideally located for this form of investment and development” given its proximity to transport links and the workforce base of “nearby residential centres across Maitland, Lake Macquarie, Newcastle and Cessnock”.

There is also a “spine of fibre that follows the M1” that can “accommodate data needs” of businesses as “activity moves online”, he said, adding the estates would enable a “continuation and diversification in the sorts of businesses that will be interested” in establishing a preference in the area.

“The face of light industry has changed and will continue to change in the region. The influence of growing sectors like Defence manufacturing, Medtech and energy will underwrite a continued demand for employment lands,” he said.

“The diversification ambitions of the Port of Newcastle and the Airport will reverberate across the local economy and that is going to support not only existing businesses but also shine a light for other business interested in coming to the region.” Read the full article on Newcastle Herald here, published on 24th July 2021 by Max McKinney.