Developer says his super suburb will be area's best03.08.2007 Mackay Mercury, written by Sarah Crawford
It will be the biggest urban development Mackay has seen, and Sydney developer Kim Clarke reckons his super suburb off Eimeo Road will also be the best. Over the next 10 years Xcel Properties managing director Mr Clarke with the Paul Ramsay Group, plan to spend $1.5 billion and create more than 13,000 jobs with the construction of a residential development with an emphasis on lifestyle for its expected 5000 population. More than half of the 298 hectares of the development called Plantation Palms will be parkland and public spaces including natural bush, subtropical wetlands and lakes. The community will even have seven kilometres of bike and walking tracks, sporting grounds, a pool, golf and bowling clubs, community centre, two schools and a police station. The development application (DA) for the new suburb is being reviewed by Mackay City Council. Council executive manager of planning and environmental services, Graham Taylor said the DA was in the decision-making period which expires within the month. "It is regarded as one of the largest master plan, integrated residential estates in Mackay," he said. At the moment, Plantation Palms consists of only a few paddocks, some trees and wetlands between Eimeo Road and Mackay-Bucasia Road. But the developer believes once it is signed off by council the first 50 houses will be built in a little over a year. Although developers have not officially begun their advertising campaign they have received deposits on blocks from their teaser advertisements in The Daily Mercury this year. Their Smart Living advertisements with a cheeky close-up of a womans behind caught the attention of 28 readers who have all put down deposits. "We have planned for 2000 dwellings and we expect about 5000 people will live here," he said. Mr Clarke bought the land three years ago after many Mackay developers turned it down. "Local developers did not want to buy it, it was not flat enough (to build easily on)," he said. Mr Clarke said he could have cut it up, squeezed in as many houses as possible and made a quick buck, but he wanted to do more with the land. "We are about good design, it's cheap to have a little cul-de-sac and squeeze five extra houses in at the end but we are not about doing subdivisions with cul-de-sacs," he said. Mr Clarke, who with his team has spent over 2000 hours designing the community, thinks you can still make money and offer people the best living possible. Although areas have been set aside for million-dollar mansions, Mr Clarke also plans on creating affordable housing as well which he said was a "big thing" for the development. "We could make money quicker by doing a cut up job...but we know the housing market goes up and down, in five years this will be the number one property in Mackay. People will be able to sell much quicker here," he said.
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