Currently around 88% of the 50 hectares of land has been developed, generating some $2.38 billion in economic activity.

The development zone is made up of seven distinct precincts: Carrington, Cottage Creek, Honeysuckle, Hunter Street, Linwood, Marina and Wickham.

● Carrington is designed to be the epitome of an inner-city suburb enjoying the inner-city revival. It is here thatt he 4 km stretch to Nobbys begins with a meander through Throsby Creek’s famous mangroves. This precinct is now complete and no longer an active redevelopment precinct.

 

● The Cottage Creek Precinct is the main commercial centre of Honeysuckle, with the Sparke Helmore Building, GHD Building, Hunter Water Corporation Head Office and the NIB head office housing busy offices. Doma Group’s 7,000 sqm office tower at 18 Honeysuckle Drive has been recently opened. Colliers International and Southern Cross Austereo are current tenants, with others to move in soon. The Doma Group is also currently planning to build two major developments – a $45 million four star hotel to be located next to Hunter Water’s headquarters and a residential development at 21 Honeysuckle Drive incorporating 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments and individual waterfront townhouses. Facilitating commercial activity in the Cottage Creek Precinct is part of Honeysuckle’s objective to encourage around the-clock activity in the CBD, enabling this hub on the harbour to become the gateway to the city of Newcastle.

 

● The Honeysuckle Precinct has been designed to be the Region’s foremost social gathering place, with a collection of restaurants, cafes, public space, live entertainment and cultural activity making it a vibrant destination where there is always something happening. Within this precinct, Harbour Square is a wide area of open space, while the Boardwalk, offers an assortment of restaurants and casual bars and cafes. On the water, Honeysuckle features the Harbour Square Boat Dock and the Lee Wharf Pontoon, designed to be attractions for tourism, charter and private vessels. The Lee Wharf development has a mixture of lifestyle retail shops, cafes, restaurants and residential opening to the foreshore promenade. It also features Worth Place Park by the harbour and the Chifley Serviced Apartments building. Nearby, the heritage-listed railway workshops provide living history as they are adaptively re-used. The Newcastle Museum, which takes up several of the heritage buildings, has been an extremely popular drawcard since opening in mid- 2011. The two restored Lee Wharf cargo sheds are home to the ever-popular Honesuckle Hotel and the Maritime Centre.

 

● Hunter Street Precinct offers accommodation for visitors to the city as well as to residents at the Cove Apartments. These developments have been the catalyst for revitalisation in Newcastle’s City West, with the community health centre consolidating this culture change with the Hunter Street Precinct becoming a convenient and colourful mix of commercial, retail and residential uses. It also features a 1,000 sqm park on Hunter Street which links the Community Health Centre and the Hunter Institute of Technology. The former Empire Hotel site, which the Corporation purchased in 2010, will soon be transformed by the local Catholic Diocese into a residential development incorporating affordable housing.

 

● Linwood has been designed as a peaceful piece of Honeysuckle showcasing the latest in architectural excellence, with innovative terrace house design fitting into the waterfront village and forming a community around landscaped foreshore parkland and a casual café.

 

● The Marina Precinct has been designed as a unique maritime experience. Headquarters to the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club (NCYC) this Precinct features 200 marina berths, shipyard maintenance facilities with 40-tonne travelift and hard-stand, a commercial centre with ship’s chandler, yacht broker, cafés and beauty clinic, Newcastle Fishermans Co-operative operates a seafood processing and retail store as well as suppliesf or the Newcastle’s commercial fishing fleet which have their own marina berths. Work on the Marina Precinct was finalised following the completion of the Glasshouse commercial office building on the Wickham waterfront and the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club’s new clubhouse in late 2008.

 

● Historic Wickham is home to heritage-listed buildings and sites. The redevelopment of the aging, semi-industrial area has provided a catalyst for re-vitalisation of the inner-city community.