High-profile developer DOMA Group is remaining tight-lipped about its plans for Nelson Bay's Marina Resort after buying the hotel last year.
A company called Magnus St Pty Limited, owned by DOMA managing director Jure Domazet and former DOMA employee Stephen Bartlett, acquired the five-storey hotel and adjoining car park overlooking Nelson Bay marina in April 2021.
The Pricefinder website lists the sale of the 6693-square metre property at $9.6 million. An industry source priced the transaction at $12.2 million.
DOMA is the Canberra-based company behind some of the most high-profile redevelopments in Newcastle, including the massive Store site in Newcastle West, the Little National Hotel and waterfront Lume and Huntington apartment buildings in Honeysuckle.
The Store is the last DOMA project on the market in Newcastle, and development manager Chris Farrington told a Property Council lunch in Newcastle this month that the company was looking for more opportunities.
"One of our greatest focuses coming from head office is we need more sites in Newcastle and the surrounding region," he said.
Asked whether the company would retain the Nelson Bay site as a hotel or redevelop the land as apartments, a DOMA spokesman said on Thursday that the firm was not ready to discuss its plans.
DOMA owns and operates five hotels in Canberra and Sydney.
Mr Bartlett lists himself on Linkedin as the director of a company "specialising in residential, hospitality and commercial renovations".
The Magnus Street property is one block back from the water.
Port Stephens Council increased allowable height limits in central Nelson Bay at the end of 2020.
The height limit on the DOMA site increased from 15 to 17.5 metres, or from five floors to six.
The limits in some parts of the central business district rose from 15 to 28 metres and, in one case, 42 metres.
The council approved an eight-storey redevelopment of the Marina Resort in 2014 when it was owned by the Chan family, but the project was not built.
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