The Record · development · Wickham Street, Newcastle
The Wickham
A proposed tower of roughly 148 metres and 43-plus storeys beside Newcastle Interchange, which would be the city’s tallest building by a wide margin. Status: proposal, not approval.
Record page started 3 July 2026 · reported figures, discrepancies noted below
What it is
Urban Property Group proposes a mixed-use tower on Wickham Street, immediately beside Newcastle Interchange, on the site of an earlier 17-storey scheme (“Bowline”) whose previous developer excavated a three-level basement and then collapsed before Urban Property bought the site. As reported by the Newcastle Herald, the proposal includes apartments, co-living units, a hotel in the podium, basement parking and an affordable-housing component, at a reported cost of $150 million, against a current approved height limit of 60 metres, which the scheme would more than double.
The figures, and where they wobble
The two Herald reports describe the same scheme at different stages with slightly different numbers, and this page keeps both on the record rather than silently picking one:
| Figure | Earlier report | Later report |
|---|---|---|
| Apartments | 249 | 245 |
| Co-living units | 100 | 99 |
| Hotel rooms | 180 | 171 |
| Height | 133 m / 43 storeys | 148 m |
Nothing here is settled until a State Significant Development application is lodged and published; that document becomes the primary source for this page the day it appears.
Entries
- 2026Reported pathway: fast-tracked via the NSW Housing Delivery Authority (SSD recommendation June 2025), with a concurrent rezoning to amend the local height control; reported expectations of a planning determination in 2026, construction from mid-2027, completion mid-2029.
- Jun 2025Housing Delivery Authority recommendation for State Significant Development assessment, as reported.
- Pre-2025The site’s first scheme, the 17-storey “Bowline”, gets as far as a three-level basement excavation before its developer fails; Urban Property Group later buys the site.
What we don’t know yet
Whether the SSD application has been lodged, the final unit and height numbers, and the affordable-housing share. We check the NSW planning portal’s state significant project listings for the filing; every figure above is currently sourced from press reporting and is marked accordingly.
Something on this page wrong or out of date? Tell us.