The Lismore App has reported that 2026 will be the year of construction and growth for Lismore, four years on from the 2022 big flood.

In one of the largest development applications (DA) lodged with Lismore City Council, the Richmond Development Group, which includes two Lismore-born-and-bred directors, wants to build circa 100 studio apartments on Weaver Street, just down from Lismore Base Hospital.

The development will cost approximately $70 million.

Wayne Kennedy, a Director of the Richmond Development Group, told the Lismore App that the development will target key worker accommodation, serving the short-term housing market.

When built, it will house nurses, doctors, ambulance officers, fire and police staff, school teachers, and whoever needs key worker accommodation. The result will free up rooms in our local motels, opening up accommodation for tourists and visitors who have found it increasingly difficult to find a room around the Lismore CBD over the last four years.

Wayne lives on the Gold Coast now, but is a Lismore boy at heart, and still harbours a desire to help our city grow and recover.

"After the flood, it was becoming increasingly obvious what was required in the town to support essential worker accommodation requirements. We did have a site on contract before the flood, where we were going to do a very similar development, but we had to change because of the severity of the flood levels. Now, the sites we have in Weaver Street are completely flood-free, which makes a huge difference.

"The requirement was based on discussions with different government departments here in Lismore about their requirements for staff accommodation and their prerequisites. We made sure that we ticked all those boxes first, and then we proceeded to design a project that would suit all their perimeters, which it does."

As you can see from the artist's impression below, the development will only be a hundred metres or so from the Lismore Base Hospital, making it an ideal location to house doctors and nurses on short-term contracts or placements, and also be made available for out-of-town families of hospital patients

(Image: supplied)

Each studio apartment will be approximately 35 square metres, including the balcony. They will have their own bathrooms, cooking appliances, dishwasher, laundry facilities and state-of-the-art security.

(An aerial view of the artist's impression)

Wayne and the development team have worked closely with Damian Chapelle from local Town Planning Consultants NDC and Lismore City Council planning division to ensure the project guidelines have been developed collaboratively between all key agencies to achieve the desired outcome for the project.

The development will be completed in stages. At this point in time, the site closest to the hospital, which is designed for 15 apartments, will be built first. Building time is an estimated 8 to 12 months, depending on the size of each stage of the project.

"We can get that one up and running pretty quickly, while we finalise the other site requirements and construction," Wayne explained.

As well as providing a huge service for the community where there has been a gaping hole, local businesses are set to benefit too.

"The biggest thing that we want to be sure of is that we're supporting locals. So, local builders, local suppliers, and local subcontractors. The less we have to bring from outside, the better."

With the $110 million development in Goonellabah reported in late January, and now this $70 million development near Lismore Base Hospital, there is a great deal of confidence returning to our city. The future is bright.