Twin Wodonga five-storey housing complexes at Junction Place have been sidelined in favour of townhouses with land titles being blamed
A LACK of buyer interest in five-storey unit buildings has prompted the developer of Wodonga's Junction Place to focus on townhouses.
Clinton Williams said that the different land title rules relating to apartments and townhouses had driven the decision.
"The demand was greater for Torrens Title than it was for body corporate," he said.
"(With the townhouses) it's freehold title, they can do what they like, without having to go to a meeting and say 'can I do this, can I do that?', but I think body corporate will grow.
"Realistically it's something new in Albury-Wodonga and I see Barkers are doing it in Albury (at the old Hungry Jack's site)."
Mr Williams said the five-storey buildings were still planned for the large site but they would be now set back from South Street.
He said approval had been granted for 70 townhouses which would be self-contained and front South and Smythe streets as well as Aurora Way which has been constructed across the former railway land.
They will be a mix of three and two-storey properties with prices starting at $550,000.
On offer: How a three-storey townhouse will appear as part of the Station 73 development at Junction Place.
"They will go on the market in a couple of weeks and we've got orders already that have been sold off the plan," Mr Williams said.
He added that they would be two or three-bedroom and have the ability to host home office businesses.
Meanwhile, buildings in the shape of train carriages, erected near the former goods shed and railway station, have lost their dull exteriors.
Historic photographs of trains and High Street, Wodonga, looking south to the water tower and north to the former Terminus hotel, have been put on the sides of the structures that are earmarked for eateries.
History in images: Developer Clinton Williams with Wodonga rail photographs plastered on replica carriages at Junction Square. Picture: KYLIE ESLER
"When you've got a bit of artwork there it draws people to it and gets people saying 'I remember that car', 'I remember that shop'," Mr Williams said.
He said that negotiations were occurring with a potential tenant of one of the two buildings which have permanent tables erected outside them.
Construction of the townhouses is earmarked to start in July, with Mr Williams saying groundwork on the cinema complex would begin "very late this year or early next year".