Replacing much-loved watering hole the Headlands Hotel, the new multi-level complex – to be known as “Headlands Austinmer Beach” – includes 61 serviced apartments, a bar, restaurant and beer garden. 

It is due to open next Wednesday, according to the venue’s advertising, after a function for stakeholders is held at the site on Tuesday.

The opening comes after the Independent Hearing and Asessement Panel  (IHAP) last week agreed to allow developers to remove a condition from their council consent, which meant they could subdivide the serviced apartment building before construction was finished.

The scenic headland site was sold to Central Coast developer Stevens Group in 2013, after the pub’s owners went into receivership and closed the venue in June 2011.

In 2014, development group succeeded where numerous others had failed, securing approval to raze the dilapidated pub.

However, the success was not without controversy, with residents claiming the group was attempting to create an “apartment building by stealth” when they tried to remove a condition that prevents serviced apartment owners from living there year round.

It was also described by opponents as “a five-storey high-rise slum”, with residents lamenting the “desecration” of the Brickyard Point headland.

Even IHAP members reluctantly approved the plans, based on a 2004 development application which was allowed to proceed due to a legal technicality.

“It is the panel’s view that the 2004 consent would not satisfy contemporary planning and design standards if considered as a fresh application,” IHAP said at the time of approval.

Despite the controversy, the apartments sold in a “buyer frenzy” with real estate agents highlighting “unprecedented interest” due to the “iconic location”.

Before the Stevens Group approval, Brickyard Point had been the subject of 15 development applications since 1986, with 10 of these determined in court.

The developers did not respond to the Mercury’s requests for comment about the new venue’s opening.