The project at 57 Maryland Way, off Guinea Street, comprises three units with three bedrooms each and one with two bedrooms on a lot measuring about 1200sq m.

Brothers Tyrone and Blaize Naughtin, of Naughtin Development Group, bought the block, one of few available in the central business district, about 18 months ago.

“Looking back, we were probably pretty lucky to get it,” Tyrone Naughtin said.

“It was just one of those fortuitous timing, right time right place, sort of things.”

Originally from Corowa, the Naughtins’ concreting background had brought them to Maryland Way previously.

“We used to do a lot of kerb and gutter and civil work,” Mr Naughtin said.

“We actually did this estate and I never thought I was going to be heading back. We want to create like what you have in the city, you just move in and it’s done.

“There’s no landscaping, there’ll be no upkeep, it will just be ready to go.” 

The townhouses are being sold off the plan, which Mr Naughtin agrees is less common in regional centres.

“In the city you’ve got to buy off the plan or you miss out, whereas here everyone’s going ‘Oh, I might wait until that goes up and I’ll have a look’, so it is a bit new,” he said.

The developers felt 57 Maryland Way would appeal to empty nesters or people looking for a low-maintenance lifestyle in a convenient location.

“Maybe Christmas is the right time where they sit down and just reassess where they’re at, why are they working so much, or what do they want to do, why have they got a big backyard?” Mr Naughtin said.

The central site represents an ambitious first step as Naughtin Development Group makes itself known, but as Mr Naughtin said, “Life’s not a dress rehearsal”.

“Finally that unique spelling is good now because it makes it different,” he said with a smile.

“All those times where over the phone, having to spell it four times, it’s not ‘Nor’ and it’s not ‘on’ at the end.”