A Hunter developer has again changed plans for his inner-city car park as its usage changes with public transport accessibility and more people working from home.
Darren Nicholson's Hunter Group is midway through construction of 50 serviced apartments on the front of the Civic West Car Park on Gibson Street, with three levels of office space set to be built on top.
Mr Nicholson had approval for a 110-place childcare centre on the bottom floor, but in revised plans lodged this month with Newcastle council, the size of the centre will be halved to 55 places.
A cafe and a 24-hour gym will take up the remainder of the space.
The building will be of similar height and setback to the Newcastle Permanent head office next door.
Plans for the site have changed numerous times over the years. Mr Nicholson bought it and the Bolton Street car park from City of Newcastle in 2012, but has looked to diversify the offering since.
"The days of building a 450 space car park are gone," he said. "With the light rail, it's no longer viable."
He previously gained approval to double the height of the five-storey car park, but changed this to serviced apartments after Newcastle council announced plans to introduce a park and ride service.
The current 450 car spaces will remain, which Mr Nicholson said was about triple what would be required if the building was constructed from scratch.
Mr Nicholson said he plans to have the redevelopment complete by January.
