The developers behind a huge industrial estate at Black Hill have sold $46 million of land on the site and plan to start work before the end of the year.
Black Hill Industrial, a joint venture between Central Coast developer Stevens Group and Hilton Grugeon's Hunter Land, won approval for the first stage of the 160-hectare Hunter Business Park project late last year.
The company has sold or leased enough of the first-stage lots to trigger finance approval and start construction, including ground clearing and earthworks.
The joint venture has lodged a development application for stages two to seven of the estate, which amounts to about 70 per cent of the total site, and hopes to gain approval from the Hunter Central Coast Regional Planning Panel this year.
The company says the light industrial estate will form part of a key logistics hub for the Hunter near the end of the M1 Motorway.
It estimates stage one will support about 1300 jobs and the entire development about 3600.
The Newcastle Herald reported in 2020 that the Land and Environment Court had rejected the $88 million development and an even bigger project next door on land owned by the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.
The two proponents were in dispute with Transport for NSW over how the estates would interact with John Renshaw Drive and the M1.
The Herald understands Black Hill Industrial has all but completed its negotiations with TfNSW.
Coal and Allied gained concept approval for the site from the Planning and Assessment Commission in 2013 before selling it to the Stevens Group.
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