Gosford CBD Gets Green Light: Major Mixed-Use Tower Approved for Mann Street Corridor

Central Coast Council has approved a 14-storey mixed-use development on the Mann Street corridor in Gosford, giving the go-ahead to a project that will deliver 187 residential apartments, ground-floor retail and dedicated co-working space within 400 metres of Gosford Station. The approval, confirmed at last Tuesday's ordinary council meeting, marks the most significant planning decision for the Gosford CBD in at least three years.

The timing is deliberate. The NSW Government's fast rail upgrade between Gosford and Sydney Central — currently under detailed design with construction flagged to begin in late 2026 — has pushed developer interest in the Gosford precinct to levels the Central Coast hasn't seen since before the pandemic. Travel times expected to fall below 60 minutes are reshaping how buyers and investors calculate liveability, and apartment supply in the CBD core remains critically thin relative to demand. The council's own housing strategy, adopted in March 2025, identified the Mann Street and Faunce Street West corridors as priority activation zones precisely because of this infrastructure windfall.

The site sits between the Gosford Regional Gallery on Georgiana Terrace and the recently revitalised Kibble Park, putting it at the geographic heart of the council's long-running Gosford City Centre Revitalisation Program. That program has already delivered the upgraded Baker Street carpark, new public realm works along the Gosford waterfront foreshore, and the repurposed Imperial Centre retail precinct. This approval layers residential density on top of that public investment for the first time at this scale.

What the Development Actually Delivers

According to the development application documents tabled at council, the project includes 62 one-bedroom apartments, 98 two-bedroom apartments and 27 three-bedroom dwellings, along with 312 square metres of ground-floor retail and 640 square metres designated for commercial tenants. A basement across three levels provides 201 car spaces. The developer, a Sydney-based group with an existing project at Erina Fair's commercial fringe, lodged the original application in September 2024 and responded to two rounds of requests for additional information before the council's Independent Hearing and Assessment Panel signed off.

Pricing for off-the-plan stock hasn't been formally released, but comparable new two-bedroom apartments in the Gosford CBD precinct have transacted between $695,000 and $780,000 over the past 12 months, according to CoreLogic data. That sits meaningfully below the broader NSW median of approximately $820,000 and roughly 30 percent under equivalent stock at the northern beaches. For buyers priced out of Terrigal or Avoca Beach — where waterfront properties have held above $1.4 million through the current cycle — Gosford's CBD apartment market represents the most direct alternative on the Central Coast.

Neighbours, Objections and What Comes Next

The approval was not unanimous. Seventeen formal objections were lodged during the public exhibition period, primarily from residents of the adjacent Henry Parry Drive apartment blocks citing overshadowing and increased traffic through Faunce Street. The panel required the developer to lower the podium height by one storey and increase the Georgiana Terrace setback from four metres to six metres before issuing its determination. A revised shadow diagram submitted in May 2026 satisfied those conditions.

Construction cannot begin until the developer satisfies a Section 4.17 condition requiring a monetary contribution of $2.3 million to the council's Gosford City Centre Infrastructure Fund — a levy intended to help fund the next stage of waterfront activation works between Mann Street and the Gosford Sailing Club. That contribution must be paid before a construction certificate is issued.

Buyers interested in off-the-plan opportunities should register directly with the developer before the formal sales launch, expected in the September quarter. Conveyancers and buyers' agents working the Central Coast market are already flagging that the Gosford stamp duty position — currently exempt for new dwellings under the NSW First Home Buyer Assistance Scheme up to $800,000 — gives the lower-priced one and two-bedroom stock in this project a meaningful cost advantage over established property. That window may not last indefinitely if valuations continue to climb.