TURNER managing director Karl May says Easterly’s foyer — where residents can greet guests, wait for a ride, or meet friends for dinner — sets the tone for the building’s luxury, with carefully selected materials, ambient lighting and high-end inclusions that redefine upscale living in Wollongong. Image: Level 33.
Excavation has ended on the hallowed grounds of 13 Crown Street; where once a great Wollongong institution stood, a mixed-use high-rise will have big shoes to fill.
Chicko’s was a household name, serving burgers, salads and chips to hungry locals and tourists alike at the site from 2009 to 2024. In its place, Sydney-based developers Level 33 will erect a 14-storey apartment block.
Billed as the city’s “premier boutique coastal high-rise”, Easterly will comprise 21 residences that “take luxury living to a new level” – but according to Level 33 managing director Eddy Haddad, the legend of Chicko’s isn’t completely kaput.
“We were very aware when we bought the site that Chicko’s had been one of those cornerstones of Wollongong city culture. Everyone seems to have a memory of walking to the park or beach with family or friends, and a Chicko’s burger in hand,” he says.
“This position is a connection between the city and coast. It’s the critical junction that joins Crown Street and the CBD with that beachfront. So we’re going out of our way to create a gateway with a hospitality offering.
“Picture a beautiful, open retail precinct, where you can still stop and grab a feed on the way to or from the entertainment centre. It’s a nod to that old culture, but with something more on top. It will be a legacy, and a defining activation of the area.”
Easterly is just the latest in a string of investments by Level 33 in the Wollongong area, which includes Skye Towers on Railway Parade, Atchison & Kenny on the former fruit shop site, Vivid Wollongong, 357 Crown where the old Red Rooster once stood and 35 Flinders Street where the old Villa Dora stood.
In 2023 it bought the Bunnings Wollongong on Gipps Street for a record $40 million, which agents Colliers said was the highest value sale of an inner-city development site in Wollongong history.
The following year, it smashed that with the purchase of WIN Grand, which it bought for the city record price of $70 million.
Mr Haddad says between the industry and revamps slated for Port Kembla and the hospital and university precincts, Wollongong has all the makings of a national hotspot.
“We see the potential for what this place can be. There’s this built-in, beautiful community connected with its heritage, a quirky culture of its own, that big-small town appeal and yet, all the fundamentals needed to become one of the great CBDs of Australia,” Mr Haddad says.
“There’s a strong jobs market with everything coming out of BlueScope, commercial, industry and this strong core in the CBD. Couple that with an abundance of natural attraction – a stunning coastline as far as the eye can see – and you create this community of people that, once they’re in, have every reason to stay.
“For that reason, we are heavily invested in affordable housing and will bring that into every development we can. We want to create space for key workers but also to give those younger generations that are being priced out the chance to stay local. That in turn helps the city build up the critical mass needed to support a thriving small business landscape.”
With distinctive curved sandstone elements – a nod to “water worn mountains” – Easterly’s architecture and materials pay homage to Wollongong’s remarkable natural setting. It is definitely more about luxury than affordability, but this, too, is a key part of a future Mr Haddad sees for Wollongong.
“With Easterly, we want to create a building that sets a new standard in luxury living – something that Wollongong wants and should be aiming for,” he says.
Early interest says he’s not wrong, with the first release sold out.
The building will have a maximum of two apartments per level and only one on the higher levels, providing residents with dual or even triple-aspect views of the coastline, escarpment and surrounds.
On the northern side will be sheltered terraces to allow indoor/outdoor living and landscaped communal terraces for entertaining guests and meeting neighbours.
Central to the development will be a ground-level boutique retail and alfresco dining precinct, providing a walkable lifestyle to beaches, dining, entertainment and amenity for residents but also, connection for the wider community.
It’s part of a “hospitality approach to the way residents experience their apartments”, according to TURNER managing director Karl May.
“Twenty years ago apartments were seen as a steppingstone to something else – it wasn’t a preference. The quality of apartments used to play into that. If you had more money, you bought a house. But in the past five to 10 years all that has changed,” he says.
“It’s now a choice to move into an apartment because it offers something different to the traditional, conventional ‘Australian dream’.
“We have poured a lot into Easterly to ensure a quality and lifestyle that makes it aspirational.”
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