Update: mayor welcomes major drawcard
LAKE Macquarie mayor Kay Fraser believes the $580 million Trinity Point development will be a major drawcard for the city.
"We are a growing city with so much to offer interstate and international visitors, and the south-west of our city is increasingly becoming a hot spot for this sort of economy-boosting activity," she said.
"It's a great investment for Morisset, Lake Macquarie city and the wider Hunter region, and this commitment from the development industry is welcomed."
Cr Fraser said she expects the luxury hotel and apartment project to bring new residents and tourists to the region.
Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper said the broader community had been supportive of the project so far and he expected that would be the case with the new approval.
"The development has been achieving council's strategic plan to provide employment and draw investment into the area, and this next stage will continue that," he said.
"No doubt there are legitimate concerns including with road access and that will need to be addressed in conjunction with Lake Macquarie City Council."
Earlier: Green light for Trinity Point
TRINITY Point was the last peninsula up for grabs in the state when property developer Keith Johnson bought it some 25 years ago, and now it is in for a major transformation.
The NSW Department of Planning has approved Johnson's landmark $580 million luxury waterfront hotel and apartment project complete with two 300-seat restaurants and a function centre, gym, day spa, wellness centre and business facilities.
In an exclusive interview with the Newcastle Herald, Johnson said he expects work to start in just 18 months.
"I'm very happy, it's been a long haul, this project has been going for 25 years, since we first moved on this site," he said.
"We didn't want to just build a building, we wanted to make a statement.
"This will do for Lake Macquarie what the Opera House has done for Sydney."
Designed by Australian firm Koichi Takada Architects, the hotel itself is expected to set a new standard for the region, as the first carbon neutral building in the state.
It is the biggest project the veteran property developer has tackled in his almost 40 years in the industry.
In its key reasons for consent, the NSW Department of Planning said the project would provide a range of benefits for the region and the state as a whole - including new tourist facilities, publicly accessible open space, jobs and a $589,960,000 capital investment.
It argued the project was consistent with the state government's broader plans for the region and said the impacts on the community and environment could be "appropriately minimised".
The department said the issues raised in public submissions had been considered and adequately addressed with changes to the project and conditions of consent.
"Weighing all relevant considerations, the project is in the public interest," it said.
The department received 11 submissions from public authorities in support of the application, including Lake Macquarie City Council, and 310 from the public including 45 objections, 1 comment and 264 in support.
From 'poorest family in town'
The founder of Johnson Property Group is one of the biggest private developers in the state, but his upbringing was far from the privileged life he enjoys now.
It makes the success of this project all the more sweeter.
"I came from the poorest family in town, one of seven siblings and we were the poorest family in town," Johnson said.
"It's been a learning curve, I suppose what a lot of people don't know is that at 14 I was told I would never get a job."
Growing up in one of Australia's richest agricultural regions in north Queensland, Burdekin, Johnson knew at a young age he wanted to get into property.
Diagnosed with epilepsy as a child, Johnson had to go to court to fight for a driver's licence - at the time even his own mother was against him.
"When the judge said I could drive, she said, 'what are you going to do when you kill somebody?' but I got medical experts, like anything if you're going to win you have to get the best around you, so I got an expert who discovered the epilepsy was only from reading.
"And so I threw the tablets away, I haven't had them since, but if I'd done what everybody around me wanted to do I would have lived like a vegetable and done nothing.
"I've lived a normal life, it was a lot harder but I had to prove to myself that I could do it."
So, he set a goal, starting out as a real estate agent he began with a two-lot subdivision, then five, then 17 and eventually 49, which he thought was "the big time".
"Now I do even bigger ones," he said.
"It's something that's progressed over all the years.
"I wanted to prove I could do something for myself, so I've always set high goals and challenged myself and I want to be the best at what we do."
A millionaire's playground
The ambitious Trinity Point project is expected to transform the Morisset Park precinct in southern Lake Macquarie.
The area, which was once a secluded, quiet spot, will become host to a 218-room five-star hotel, 180 waterfront apartments and an already approved $7.2 million 188-berth marina with a helipad.
It's a millionaire's playground, but Johnson said it's still designed to cater to locals looking for a lifestyle change and tourists wanting to experience luxury just an hour and a half from Sydney.
"The original plans were a lot smaller, so we've actually got less apartments but bigger and better quality," he said.
"We tested the market just before COVID on the original plan and everybody wanted big apartments, they all wanted the penthouses first.
"That or they came back to join two together, so we thought 'let's do it properly' and we've gone for much bigger units."
His restaurant 8 at Trinity, which serves up to 1000 to 1200 people a day, has proved popular with locals and tourists looking for a unique dining experience at Lake Macquarie.
Johnson said there's usually in the order of 400 people on the waiting list on weekends.
"We know it's a destination point and we've proved that," he said.
"Even now people come here to get pictures of this amazing site, nobody will come to Lake Macquarie without coming to see this design."
He's confident the new build will almost triple the value of homes in his nearby housing estate.
"It's not just here, everywhere within two hours of a city all around the world, regional properties are where people want to be - close enough but far enough," he said.
"We're close enough to Sydney but we're far enough for what people are wanting."
Johnson believes all eyes will be on the potential of Lake Macquarie once his new development is built, but he's not too concerned about competition.
"Good luck to 'em," he said.
"At least I know it would take them another 15 years to get a marina, this was the last peninsula left in NSW, it's a unique site and a unique opportunity."
Now that the project has been approved it will go into the detailed design stage, which is expected to take 18 months.
Once that's done it will go out to tender, with the hope the project can be completed within three years.
Johnson wants to keep the Trinity Point brand at the forefront of the new hotel, but work with one of the major hoteliers to support the project with back of house operations and staffing.
He expects the hotel to employ 300 to 400 people.
At this stage, there aren't any other projects in the pipeline for Johnson, who said he has "enough on his plate" with Trinity Point and another residential estate, Watagan Park.
"In any one industry, 80 per cent of all business gets done by 20 per cent, I want to be at the top of whatever I do and be the best at it," he said.
"There's more to achieve, I haven't even started yet."
