IT'S GO high or go home at Charlestown as developers turn the sod on what's set to be Lake Macquarie's tallest building, Macquarie Tower.
The 15-storey, 53 apartment development complete with childcare centre and commercial space is the latest in a spate of high-rise projects cropping up in Charlestown - expected to be finished mid-2024.
It's an investment developer GWH is confident will pay off, after the success of its Highpoint Apartments building next door, director Hilton Grugeon said.
"I've always viewed Charlestown as the Chatswood of the Hunter Valley," he said.
"Lake Macquarie and Charlestown are very much constrained with the availability of places to build on, but going high gets the population needs met.
"Most of the people who live in these sorts of buildings come from a very small radius around here - they don't want to leave the place they've grown up and raised their families ... so they downsize into apartments like this."
It has seen proposals like a major senior's living complex with 350 units and 120 aged care beds on the corner of Dudley and Tiral Street come to the fore.
A $10 million commitment from the federal government to extend the Newcastle Mines Grouting Fund to Lake Macquarie to deal with mine subsidence is the cherry on the cake.
Lake Macquarie council mayor Kay Fraser said Charlestown's development has long been hamstrung by mine subsidence.
"It's all about diversificatiohn, getting this type of development in Lake Macquarie close to our strategic economic centres like Charlestown," she said.
"It's really important to make sure that we don't continue to spread out in those urban areas, we want to stay in these main strategic areas and build on them."
Units have already sold off the plan at Macquarie Tower, with developers reporting a high level of interest in the commercial spaces.
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